Andrea Tomassi: A grant to revolutionize geodynamics

Nearly 2,000 researchers across Europe were in the running, but only 185 recipients were awarded a grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Reserved for established researchers, the €2.5 million “Advanced Grant” funds an innovative and original research project over a five-year period.“I’ve been preparing this project for two years, ”explains Andrea Tommasi, research director in the “Mantle and Interfaces”team at the Montpellier Geosciences Laboratory. “Thanks to this grant, we’ll be able to focus on a fundamental research project—one without immediate practical applications—by funding the research, postdocs, and doctoral contracts…” With 11 recipients, the CNRS is the institution in Europe that has received the most awards from the ERC.

Better predicting Earth's deformation

Andréa Tommasi’s project, called RhEoVOLUTION, aims to provide the scientific community studying Earth deformation with a new tool for predicting where and how deformation occurs within the plates that form the Earth’s solid outer shell.

“It is very difficult today to simulate Earth deformation,” explains Andréa Tommasi. “This is because the deformation is highly heterogeneous and results from the interaction of processes occurring on scales ranging from micrometers to several hundred kilometers. It’s as if we were trying to open a set of Russian nesting dolls without being able to reach the smallest one.”

This difficulty also stems from the wide range of physicochemical processes involved in rock deformation. It is also due to the fact that rocks are anisotropic; in other words, the way they deform depends on the orientation of the forces relative to their internal structure. “ As with climate prediction, we propose using stochastic approaches and incorporating the variability in the mechanical behavior of rocks as parameters in our models. This variability can be determined through the observation of rocks, as well as through experiments on analogous materials combined with in-situ observations “the researcher continues.”

The goal is to be able to explain the processes driven by plate tectonics—particularly the formation of new plate boundaries—more than 50 years after this paradigm was established.“But we also hope to apply these models to current issues, such as the deformation of ice sheets.”

A career marked by success

In 1998, Andrea Tommasi, originally from Brazil, joined the CNRS. From the very beginning of her career, she has been interested in the processes responsible for Earth deformation at all scales. In 2016, she was elected a Fellow ofthe American Geophysical Union, an honor bestowed upon researchers who have made an exceptional contribution to the Earth sciences. In 2020, Andrea Tommasi also received the CNRS Silver Medal.“It’s truly a wonderful start to the year for me, as I’m receiving a medal for my past research and a grant for future projects,” the researcher said happily.