Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris - Dynamique des fluides géologiques

Dynamics of the geological fluids

Objectives

We seek to understand the dynamics of the Earth as a physical system of multi-scale complexity. We are interested particularly in the following subjects:

• Cooling dynamic of the Earth
• Convection phenomena in the mantle , and the earth's core
• Volcanic eruption's dynamics
• Magmatic systems
• Geodynamo
• Relief and landscape's dynamics

Methods

Our approach is based on in situ measurements and numerical modeling as well as analogical experiments in laboratory.
We reduce the complexity of the problems in order to identify, on essential systems, the fundamental mechanisms operating, measure the main variables and to deduce their scale behavior and the phase diagrams. The knowledge of a simplified system produces a rigorous interpretative framework for the observations.

Figure from Anne Davaille

Review of the modeling activities on the laboratory in connection with the main observations (in top, from left to right: distribution of the seisms on the Earth's surface, seismic tomography imagery of the mantle, bathymetry of the Pacific Ocean locating the principal hot spots).