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Published on September 11, 2026

Nanga Parbat, one of the most impressive peaks in the Himalayas, is also a mountain undergoing profound transformation. Rising to 8,125 metres, this massif provides an exceptional natural laboratory for studying the dynamics of the Earth’s crust.
Researchers from ISTerre and their collaborators combined GNSS measurements with satellite radar data (InSAR) to map the current deformation of the massif.
Their results show that the Nanga Parbat massif is currently rising by several (…)

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Published on September 05, 2026

The study of the (geo)dynamo using numerical codes has been developing for about 30 years ; the first dynamo simulation was published in 1995 [1]. Since then, significant progress has been made in both hardware and software, enabling simulations to reach conditions comparable to those found within planetary and stellar interiors. These numerous improvements have, in particular, made the discipline more accessible, and many research teams have since been able to tackle the simulation of (…)

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Published on July 10, 2026

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are sudden releases of water from glacier-fed lakes. They can be triggered by a range of processes, including ice or rock avalanches, moraine failures, etc, and are recognized as among the most destructive cryospheric hazards.
In the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, one of the world’s best-documented GLOF regions, most studies and risk-management strategies have historically focused on large glacial lakes (>0.1 km²), mainly because they store larger volumes of (…)

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Published on July 03, 2026

An international team of geoscientists from ISTerre (CNRS/Université Grenoble Alpes), the University of Alaska Anchorage, and other partner institutions investigated the active fault systems accommodating tectonic strain at the northern edge of the Quito-Latacunga microblock in the high Andes of Ecuador and Colombia.
The boundary between tectonic microblocks in this region has long been challenging to map, with geodetic models suggesting approximately 3 mm/year of right-lateral strain. (…)

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Published on June 25, 2026

Recent research in subduction zones highlights how earthquakes, volcanism, and the deep recycling of Earth’s materials are part of a single connected system. At subduction zones, one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, driving most of the planet’s large earthquakes while also transporting water, carbon, and rocks back into the mantle.
Until recently, observations were mainly limited to land-based networks, leaving offshore fault systems, where the largest earthquakes occur, poorly (…)

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Published on June 12, 2026

Climate warming is profoundly altering high-mountain environments and increasing the likelihood of complex natural hazards. The destabilization of glaciers, mountain slopes, and river systems can trigger cascading events, leading to significant impacts on populations, infrastructure, and ecosystems.
The 2025 collapse in Switzerland’s Lötschental Valley provides a striking example of this evolution. A large rockfall destabilized a glacier, which subsequently collapsed and generated an (…)

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Published on May 04, 2026

A collaborative team of micropaleontologists, geochemists, and physicists from ISTerre (CNRS/Université Grenoble Alpes), CEREGE, Institut Néel, SOLEIL, and Rutgers University provides new insights into the mechanisms of skeletal formation in Nannoconus, an extinct calcareous nannoplankton that played a major role in biocalcification in the Cretaceous seas.
For nearly 35 million years, the skeletons of this genus have contributed massive carbonate accumulations on the seafloor, (…)

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Published on April 30, 2026

While atmospheric mercury (Hg) emissions in Europe have significantly decreased since the 1970s thanks to environmental policies, ecosystem responses remain uneven. In high-mountain regions, climate change may disrupt this recovery trajectory. A study involving scientists from several laboratories within the OSUG federation [1], published in Environmental Science & Technology and supported by the LabEx OSUG, reveals that the melting of Alpine glaciers is remobilising mercury that has (…)

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Published on April 24, 2026

The PhD research of Arthur Grange made it possible to explore and characterize the Argentière Glacier through the analysis of seismic waves recorded over one month in spring 2018, as part of the RESOLVE project.
From a catalogue of seismic events (icequakes) and their relocation, Arthur’s PhD made it possible to carry out a precise and systematic study of source mechanisms, relying on 3D elastic modelling and inversion tools developed within the SEISCOPE research project hosted at the (…)

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Published on April 17, 2026

During the transformation of oceanic lithosphere rocks through a process known as serpentinization, solid organic compounds can form abiotically. This study shows that these compounds can be preserved in certain rocks called metaserpentinites, even when they are carried deep into the Earth under mantle conditions.
This contrasts with organic matter of biological origin found in other rocks, which is typically transformed into graphite and isotopically altered during burial.
In (…)

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