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Earth Sciences - 23.10.2020
Environment - Earth Sciences - 08.10.2020 
Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals
Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier 1 have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will also be more impacted by future climate change.
Earth Sciences - 23.07.2020 
Reduction in human-induced seismic noise during the pandemic lockdown
A team of 76 seismologists, including several French scientists from the CNRS, the Paris Institute of Earth Physics (IPGP), Université de Paris, Université de Strasbourg and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) 1 discovered that the lockdown measures used in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 have led to a 50% reduction in seismic noise due to human activity across the globe between January-June 2020.
Earth Sciences - Astronomy / Space Science - 18.05.2020 
Mars: where mud flows like lava
The surface of the planet Mars bears probable traces of -sedimentary volcanism-, a geological phenomenon that leads to the eruption of mud from underground. But how does a mixture of sediment and water behave in the open air on the Red Planet? Conditions there are extremely different from those on Earth - atmospheric pressure is 150 times lower and temperatures are generally negative.
Earth Sciences - 15.04.2020 
A new tool to predict volcanic eruptions
Earth's atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, a mixture that is unique in the Solar System 1 . The oxygen was produced by some of the first living organisms. But where did the nitrogen come from? Did it escape from Earth's mantle through volcanic activity? To try to answer these questions, Jabrane Labidi, a CNRS researcher at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (CNRS/IPGP/IGN) 2 and his colleagues collected samples of gas from several volcanic sites on our planet.
Earth Sciences - 18.12.2019 
Submarine cables: billions of potential seismic sensors!
Scientists have for the first time shown that it is possible to detect the propagation of seismic waves on the seafloor using submarine telecommunications cables. According to their observations, this existing infrastructure could be used to detect earthquakes, as well as swell and underwater noise. The results are published on December 18, 2019, by researchers from the CNRS, OCA, IRD and Université Côte d'Azur working together in the Géoazur laboratory, in collaboration with the company Fébus Optics and the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université) 1.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 09.10.2019 
Bee pollination boosts the profitability of oilseed rape
Researchers from INRA and CNRS have shown for the first time that bee pollination surpasses the use of pesticides in yield and especially in profitability of oilseed rape. The team of researchers analysed data collected over four years in farmers' fields in an agricultural plain in Deux-Sèvres (Nouvelle Aquitaine, western France).
Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 07.01.2019
Earth Sciences - Environment - 07.11.2018
Earth Sciences - Environment - 11.04.2018 
The dinosaur menu, as revealed by calcium
By studying calcium in fossil remains in deposits in Morocco and Niger, researchers have been able to reconstruct the food chains of the past, thus explaining how so many predators could coexist in the dinosaurs' time.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 04.04.2018 
The great acceleration reaches new heights
An international team of researchers 1 , including a CNRS researcher at the department of Écologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés (CNRS / Université de Picardie Jules Verne) has observed an acceleration in the increase of biodiversity on mountain peaks in Europe.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 26.02.2018
Earth Sciences - History / Archeology - 01.12.2017
Earth Sciences - Astronomy / Space Science - 30.11.2017
Earth Sciences - Life Sciences - 13.11.2017 
World’s longest sauropod dinosaur trackway brought to light
In 2009, the world's largest dinosaur tracks were discovered in the French village of Plagne, in the Jura Mountains. Since then, a series of excavations at the site has uncovered other tracks, sprawling over more than 150 meters. They form the longest sauropod trackway ever to be found.
Earth Sciences - Event - 05.10.2017
Earth Sciences - Life Sciences - 28.06.2017 
Brooding dinosaurs
A new method used to perform geochemical analysis of fossilized eggs from China has shown that oviraptorosaurs incubated their eggs with their bodies within a 35–40° C range, similar to extant birds today. This finding is the result of Franco-Chinese collaboration coordinated by Romain Amiot of the Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon: Terre, planètes et environnement (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1).
Life Sciences - Earth Sciences - 07.06.2017 
The secrets of tooth calcium revealed
Two studies on calcium isotopes 1 in teeth have provided new insights into both the extinction of the dinosaurs and weaning age in humans. The findings of these studies, conducted by CNRS researchers at Lyon ENS and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, were published, respectively, on 25 and 30 May 2017 in Current Biology and PNAS .
Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 22.02.2017
Environment - Earth Sciences - 12.12.2016
Earth Sciences
Results 21 - 40 of 56.
Deep magma facilitates the movement of tectonic plates
A small amount of molten rock located under tectonic plates encourages them to move. This is what scientists from the Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon: Terre, planètes et environnement (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) have recently discovered. Their new model takes into account not only the velocity of seismic waves but also the way in which they are attenuated by the medium they pass through.
A small amount of molten rock located under tectonic plates encourages them to move. This is what scientists from the Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon: Terre, planètes et environnement (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) have recently discovered. Their new model takes into account not only the velocity of seismic waves but also the way in which they are attenuated by the medium they pass through.
Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier 1 have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will also be more impacted by future climate change.
A team of 76 seismologists, including several French scientists from the CNRS, the Paris Institute of Earth Physics (IPGP), Université de Paris, Université de Strasbourg and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) 1 discovered that the lockdown measures used in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 have led to a 50% reduction in seismic noise due to human activity across the globe between January-June 2020.
The surface of the planet Mars bears probable traces of -sedimentary volcanism-, a geological phenomenon that leads to the eruption of mud from underground. But how does a mixture of sediment and water behave in the open air on the Red Planet? Conditions there are extremely different from those on Earth - atmospheric pressure is 150 times lower and temperatures are generally negative.
Earth's atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, a mixture that is unique in the Solar System 1 . The oxygen was produced by some of the first living organisms. But where did the nitrogen come from? Did it escape from Earth's mantle through volcanic activity? To try to answer these questions, Jabrane Labidi, a CNRS researcher at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (CNRS/IPGP/IGN) 2 and his colleagues collected samples of gas from several volcanic sites on our planet.
Scientists have for the first time shown that it is possible to detect the propagation of seismic waves on the seafloor using submarine telecommunications cables. According to their observations, this existing infrastructure could be used to detect earthquakes, as well as swell and underwater noise. The results are published on December 18, 2019, by researchers from the CNRS, OCA, IRD and Université Côte d'Azur working together in the Géoazur laboratory, in collaboration with the company Fébus Optics and the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université) 1.
Researchers from INRA and CNRS have shown for the first time that bee pollination surpasses the use of pesticides in yield and especially in profitability of oilseed rape. The team of researchers analysed data collected over four years in farmers' fields in an agricultural plain in Deux-Sèvres (Nouvelle Aquitaine, western France).
Mars 2020 - geology and the conquest of space
Cathy Quantin-Nataf, Gilles Dromart and Gilles Montagnac of the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon (LGL-TPE) are members of a research team developing one of the instruments that will go aboard the rover of the Mars 2020 Mission: the SuperCam. Watch live as NASA's next rover, Mars 2020, is built and tested in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Cathy Quantin-Nataf, Gilles Dromart and Gilles Montagnac of the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon (LGL-TPE) are members of a research team developing one of the instruments that will go aboard the rover of the Mars 2020 Mission: the SuperCam. Watch live as NASA's next rover, Mars 2020, is built and tested in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Launch of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) : Earth System Science enters the Big Data era
Wednesday 7 November 2018 officially launches the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) for the pooling and streamlining of data and services of all kinds for the study of our planet. This initiative, for which the CNRS and BRGM are working together with the French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, in part aims to better understand the mechanisms behind earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Wednesday 7 November 2018 officially launches the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) for the pooling and streamlining of data and services of all kinds for the study of our planet. This initiative, for which the CNRS and BRGM are working together with the French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, in part aims to better understand the mechanisms behind earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
By studying calcium in fossil remains in deposits in Morocco and Niger, researchers have been able to reconstruct the food chains of the past, thus explaining how so many predators could coexist in the dinosaurs' time.
An international team of researchers 1 , including a CNRS researcher at the department of Écologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés (CNRS / Université de Picardie Jules Verne) has observed an acceleration in the increase of biodiversity on mountain peaks in Europe.
Humans Changed the Ecosystems of Central Africa More Than 2,600 Years Ago
Fields, streets and cities, but also forests planted in rank and file, and dead straight rivers: humans shape nature to better suit their purposes, and not only since the onset of industrialization. Such influences are well documented in the Amazonian rainforest. On the other hand, the influence of humans was debated in Central Africa where major interventions seem to have occurred there 2,600 years ago: Potsdam geoscientist Yannick Garcin and his team have published a report on their findings in the journal PNAS.
Fields, streets and cities, but also forests planted in rank and file, and dead straight rivers: humans shape nature to better suit their purposes, and not only since the onset of industrialization. Such influences are well documented in the Amazonian rainforest. On the other hand, the influence of humans was debated in Central Africa where major interventions seem to have occurred there 2,600 years ago: Potsdam geoscientist Yannick Garcin and his team have published a report on their findings in the journal PNAS.
Bronze Age artifacts used meteoric iron
You may already be surprised to hear there are iron objects dating back to the Bronze Age, but their meteorite origin is even more astonishing. Though meteorites had already been recognized as one source of this metal, the scientific community couldn't determine whether they accounted for most or simply a few Bronze Age iron artifacts.
You may already be surprised to hear there are iron objects dating back to the Bronze Age, but their meteorite origin is even more astonishing. Though meteorites had already been recognized as one source of this metal, the scientific community couldn't determine whether they accounted for most or simply a few Bronze Age iron artifacts.
New early signals to quantify the magnitude of strong earthquakes
After an earthquake, there is a disturbance in the field of gravity almost instantaneously. This could be recorded before the seismic waves that seismologists usually analyze. In a study published in Science on December 1, 2017, a team formed of researchers from CNRS, IPGP, the Université Paris Diderot 1 and Caltech has managed to observe these weak signals related to gravity and to understand where they come from.
After an earthquake, there is a disturbance in the field of gravity almost instantaneously. This could be recorded before the seismic waves that seismologists usually analyze. In a study published in Science on December 1, 2017, a team formed of researchers from CNRS, IPGP, the Université Paris Diderot 1 and Caltech has managed to observe these weak signals related to gravity and to understand where they come from.
In 2009, the world's largest dinosaur tracks were discovered in the French village of Plagne, in the Jura Mountains. Since then, a series of excavations at the site has uncovered other tracks, sprawling over more than 150 meters. They form the longest sauropod trackway ever to be found.
A new method used to perform geochemical analysis of fossilized eggs from China has shown that oviraptorosaurs incubated their eggs with their bodies within a 35–40° C range, similar to extant birds today. This finding is the result of Franco-Chinese collaboration coordinated by Romain Amiot of the Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon: Terre, planètes et environnement (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1).
Two studies on calcium isotopes 1 in teeth have provided new insights into both the extinction of the dinosaurs and weaning age in humans. The findings of these studies, conducted by CNRS researchers at Lyon ENS and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, were published, respectively, on 25 and 30 May 2017 in Current Biology and PNAS .
An exceptional system of exoplanets
Seven temperate Earth-sized planets revolve around the star TRAPPIST-1. In addition, at least three of them harbor conditions compatible with the presence of liquid water on their surfaces.
Seven temperate Earth-sized planets revolve around the star TRAPPIST-1. In addition, at least three of them harbor conditions compatible with the presence of liquid water on their surfaces.
Atmospheric methane concentrations are rising faster since 2007
An international group of researchers led by LSCE (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ) has published a thorough budget of methane sources and sinks 1 over the last decade in the Earth System Science Data (ESSD) journal,
An international group of researchers led by LSCE (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ) has published a thorough budget of methane sources and sinks 1 over the last decade in the Earth System Science Data (ESSD) journal,
