I'm Rob Houtgast. I'm a PhD student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The title of my research is : "Tectonic movements at the rim of the Ardennes Massif and Rhine Graben and their impact on river activity". I started at the 15th of november 1997. This research is being carried out in the framework of the Neesdi program sponsored by the Dutch science foundation (NWO).

I'm working on the following subjects:

• I have been working on the quantification of Quaternary fault movements of the Roer Valley Rift System at a 100 ka time scale. The results will be published in 2000 (see bibliography).
• To study fault behavour in more detail I have done extensive fieldwork (1999, 2000) in an area around Sittard (in the south of the Netherlands). In this area the Feldbiss Fault zone (one of the main border fault of the Roer Valley Graben) crosses the Late Pleistocene terraces of the Maas river, which provides time control on the fault movements. The results of this research will be published somewhere late 2001.
• A seismic survey on the Maas River across the Roer Valley Rift System was carried out in the autumn of 1999. I'm working on the neotectonics of this rift system.
• Two faults of the Feldbiss Fault zone were investigated by digging a trench across.These were the Geleen Fault and the Feldbiss Fault. 

Bibliography

Scientific:
Houtgast, R.F. & Van Balen, R.T. (1999): The Quaternary tectonic movements in the Roer Valley Graben and their impact on the development on the Meuse River. Geophysical Research Abstracts. Volume 1, Number 1, p.48. 24th General Assembly. Society Symposium, Solid Earth Geophysics & Geodesy

Tigrek.S, Kiden,P., Houtgast, R.F., Van Kuijk, J.M.J. (2000): Abstract: A High Resolution Seismic survey on the river Maas. Petrophysics meets Geophysics -Paris.

In press or submitted:
Houtgast, R.F., and Van Balen, R.T., 2000. Neotectonics of the Roer Valley Rift System, the Netherlands,Global and Planetary Change, in press.

Van Balen, R.T., Houtgast, R.F., Van der Wateren, F.M., Vandenberghe, J., and P.W. Bogaart, 2000. Sediment budget and tectonic evolution of the Meuse catchment in the Ardennes and the Roer Valley Rift System, Global and Planetary Change, in press.

Van Balen, R.T., R.F. Houtgast, F.M. Van der Wateren and J. Vandenberghe, submitted , Sediment budget and tectonic evolution of the Maas catchment in the Ardennes and the Roer Valley Rift System, extended abstract SFB-350 Bonn, Geologie en Mijnbouw/Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

Popular:
Vandenberghe, J. Van Balen, R.T. Bogaart, P.W., Houtgast, R.F. & Van der Wateren, F.W. (1999): De Maas: Transportband van sediment. Aarde en Mens. Jaargang 3, nummer : 16 - 21.

Adres
Rob Houtgast                     
Department of Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology
Faculty of Earth Sciences
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
mail : De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
phone : +31 20 44 47392 fax: +31 20 6462457
email : hour@geo.vu.nl