Tectonics and Structural Geology

Sixty years under the mountain: A geoscientific odyssey through the Mont Blanc tunnel

Asmae Ourkiya July 16, 2025

Aiguiile du Midi, Mont Blanc Massif. Photo by Andy Smedley. Source: Imaggeo

On July 16, 1965, the Mont Blanc Tunnel, 11.611 km of tunnel piercing the heart of the Alps, opened to traffic, marking a triumph of engineering, geology, and international cooperation. Sixty years later, this civilian artery connecting Chamonix (France) and Courmayeur (Italy) stands not just as a testament to human inventiveness but as an ongoing marvel if viewed through a geoscientific lens. On ...[Read More]

A Geoscientist’s Colorful Journey from Research to Children’s Books

Anna Katsigera and Lucia Perez-Diaz May 1, 2025

How the Earth Works digs into all that happens beneath our feet in an accessible and lively manner. The pages of this book are charged with Dr. Lucía Pérez-Díaz’s passion and expertise, as she helps us to explore the inner workings of our planet. (Credit: Ryan Cowan)

In today’s blog we’re having a chat with our very own Dr Lucia Perez-Diaz. As Lucia put it at the start of this year’s General Assembly, us scientists get to wear many “hats”, and she lives up to that statement. Besides a brilliant geoscientist, she is an incredible artist – also featured as last year’s artist in residence – and a budding press assistant! But more importantly, she is the author of ...[Read More]

Palaeoseismic crisis in the Galera Fault (southern Spain): consequences in Bronze Age settlements?

Asmae Ourkiya August 30, 2024

Aerial views of the Bronze Age settlements at the Castellón Alto. Photo: Paisajes Españoles)

Alright, buckle up folks for this blog post, because we’re about to explore the wild ride of plate tectonics between the Iberian Peninsula (Eurasia plate) and North Africa (Nubia plate). These two plates are moving slowly at a moderate pace of 5-7 mm per year, which might not seem like much, but it’s enough to shake things up—literally! In a recent paper, published by our journal Solid Earth ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: meet Gino de Gelder, researcher of the link between tectonics, sea-level rise & coral reefs!

Simon Clark January 12, 2024

Hello Gino! Welcome to GeoTalk. Could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your background? Sure thing! My background is mostly in tectonics, geomorphology and the evolution of (active) fault systems, which I developed during my studies at Utrecht University and my PhD at the IPGP (Paris). Initially I focused on the way that coastlines record either uplift or subsidence in response ...[Read More]