Laboratoire de Géologie (CNRS-Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris,
France)
The Geology Laboratory of ENS is both a place for research and a place
of training in Earth Sciences through teaching and research. Although
the size of the laboratory is modest, it covers a very wide spectrum of
research topics: geophysics, seismology, geodesy, seismotectonics,
geology, rock mechanics, thermochemistry, mineralogy, geomaterials,
geochemistry. This strongly favors exchanges between topics which is a
strong feature of the laboratory. The scientific and educational
approaches are characterized by the will to strongly couple
observations/measures, experiments and modeling in order to understand
the mechanisms at work, to model them and possibly to predict long term
evolutions. Scale changes, spatial as well as temporal, are
characteristics of our approach: from the seismic rupture to the slow
mountain building processes ( team « Dynamics of the Earth ») or,
concerning the transformation of materials under temperature, pressure
and stress, from the crystal scale to the lithospheric plate scale
(team« Geomaterials »). All these studies are based on earth/sea
experiments and measurements, satellite observations and field studies
in various key places of the Earth. Another characteristic of the
laboratory is its rich experimental infrastructure: materials
characterization techniques, high pressure/ high temperatures equipment
as well as experimental deformation equipment under controlled
conditions.
