Anne Davaille is a French geophysicist and director of research at the CNRS, France in the field of Earth Sciences. Davaille is known for her innovative experiments using thermochemical convection in fluids to simulate the mantles of planets. She uses these experiments to analyze fluid mechanics that create a new understanding of convective regimes in Earth and other planets.
Anne Davaille states that her interest in Earth Science was sparked in her childhood by the project FAMOUS scientific exploration. [1] Davaille graduated from ESPCI in 1988. [2] She defended her PhD thesis, Thermal convection in a variable viscosity fluid. Applications to the Earth in 1991, under the supervision of Claude Jaupart at University Paris VI and IPGP. [3]
Davaille is a director of research at the FAST laboratory (Fluides, Automatique et Systèmes Thermiques) of the Université Paris-Sud. [4] [5] Her work focuses on the understanding of fluid mechanics in the mantle of planets, with an emphasis on laboratory experimentation. She has worked extensively on the physics of mantle plumes on Earth [6] as well as on other rocky planets. [7]
Davaille is the recipient of the 2019 Augustus Love medal of the European Geosciences Union for her innovative experiments and analysis of fluid mechanics to understand convective regimes in the mantle and magmatic systems of the Earth and other planets. [8]
In 2019 Anne Davaille was awarded the Augustus Love Medal of the European Geosciences Union “for her experiments and analysis of fluid mechanics to understand convective regimes in the mantle and magmatic systems of Earth and the solar system”. The Augustus Love Medal is “awarded to a distinguished scientist in the field of geodynamics, comprising mantle and core convection, tectonophysics, post-glacial rebound and Earth rotation.” [9]
As a Senior Researcher and Director of Research of the FAST lab at Paris-Sud University, Anne Davaille’s work is centered around fluid mechanics. Her research emphasizes unique laboratory experimentation through innovative and creative ideas. She has done extensive work on the physics of mantle plumes on Earth and other rocky planets (planetary dynamics). Her research has led to new interpretations for the origin of hot spots and superswells [10] as well as isotopic anomalies within the Earth’s mantle.
Some of her highlighted work include studying the onset of small-scale convection [11] beneath the lid of layers with strongly temperature dependent viscosity. Anne has also detailed the existence of a doming regime in fluids above a lower density layer at the base of mantles in rocky planets. She has also introduced new techniques [12] to accurately measure temperatures, compositions, and velocities within fluid masses like that of the mantle Earth. Anne’s work with other rocky planets has contributed to a greater understanding of the onset of subduction on Venus. [13]
Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity. When the cause of the convection is unspecified, convection due to the effects of thermal expansion and buoyancy can be assumed. Convection may also take place in soft solids or mixtures where particles can flow.
Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.
In fluid mechanics, the Rayleigh number (Ra, after Lord Rayleigh) for a fluid is a dimensionless number associated with buoyancy-driven flow, also known as free (or natural) convection. It characterises the fluid's flow regime: a value in a certain lower range denotes laminar flow; a value in a higher range, turbulent flow. Below a certain critical value, there is no fluid motion and heat transfer is by conduction rather than convection. For most engineering purposes, the Rayleigh number is large, somewhere around 106 to 108.
Jean Jouzel, is a prominent French glaciologist and climatologist. He has mainly worked on the reconstruction of past climate derived from the study of the Antarctic and Greenland ice.
The internal structure of Earth is the solid portion of the Earth, excluding its atmosphere and hydrosphere. The structure consists of an outer silicate solid crust, a highly viscous asthenosphere and solid mantle, a liquid outer core whose flow generates the Earth's magnetic field, and a solid inner core.
Dan Peter McKenzie is a Professor of Geophysics at the University of Cambridge, and one-time head of the Bullard Laboratories of the Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences. He wrote the first paper defining the mathematical principles of plate tectonics on a sphere, and his early work on mantle convection created the modern discussion of planetary interiors.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headquarters in Munich (Germany). Membership is open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated with these fields and related studies, including students and retired seniors.
Don Lynn Anderson was an American geophysicist who made significant contributions to the understanding of the origin, evolution, structure, and composition of Earth and other planets. An expert in numerous scientific disciplines, Anderson's work combined seismology, solid state physics, geochemistry and petrology to explain how the Earth works. Anderson was best known for his contributions to the understanding of the Earth's deep interior, and more recently, for the plate theory hypothesis that hotspots are the product of plate tectonics rather than narrow plumes emanating from the deep Earth. Anderson was Professor (Emeritus) of Geophysics in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He received numerous awards from geophysical, geological and astronomical societies. In 1998 he was awarded the Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences along with Adam Dziewonski. Later that year, Anderson received the National Medal of Science. He held honorary doctorates from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Paris (Sorbonne), and served on numerous university advisory committees, including those at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Stanford, University of Paris, Purdue University, and Rice University. Anderson's wide-ranging research resulted in hundreds of published papers in the fields of planetary science, seismology, mineral physics, petrology, geochemistry, tectonics and the philosophy of science.
Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes, faulting. It also attempts to probe the internal activity by measuring magnetic fields, gravity, and seismic waves, as well as the mineralogy of rocks and their isotopic composition. Methods of geodynamics are also applied to exploration of other planets.
Large low-shear-velocity provinces, LLSVPs, also called LLVPs or superplumes, are characteristic structures of parts of the lowermost mantle of Earth. These provinces are characterized by slow shear wave velocities and were discovered by seismic tomography of deep Earth. There are two main provinces: the African LLSVP and the Pacific LLSVP. Both extend laterally for thousands of kilometers and possibly up to 1,000 kilometers vertically from the core–mantle boundary. The Pacific LLSVP is 3,000 kilometers across, and underlies four hotspots that suggest multiple mantle plumes underneath. These zones represent around 8% of the volume of the mantle. Other names for LLSVPs include "superswells", "thermo-chemical piles", or "hidden reservoirs". Most of these names, however, are more interpretive of their proposed geodynamical or geochemical effects. For example, the name "thermo-chemical pile" interprets LLSVPs as lower-mantle piles of thermally hot and/or chemically distinct material. LLSVPs are still relatively mysterious, and many questions remain about their nature, origin, and geodynamic effects.
The discovery of extrasolar Earth-sized planets has encouraged research into their potential for habitability. One of the generally agreed requirements for a life-sustaining planet is a mobile, fractured lithosphere cyclically recycled into a vigorously convecting mantle, in a process commonly known as plate tectonics. Plate tectonics provide a means of geochemical regulation of atmospheric particulates, as well as removal of carbon from the atmosphere. This prevents a “runaway greenhouse” effect that can result in inhospitable surface temperatures and vaporization of liquid surface water. Planetary scientists have not reached a consensus on whether Earth-like exoplanets have plate tectonics, but it is widely thought that the likelihood of plate tectonics on an Earth-like exoplanet is a function of planetary radius, initial temperature upon coalescence, insolation, and presence or absence of liquid-phase surface water.
In geology, numerical modeling is a widely applied technique to tackle complex geological problems by computational simulation of geological scenarios.
Lid tectonics, commonly thought of as stagnant lid tectonics, is the type of tectonics that is believed to exist on several planets and moons in the Solar System, and possibly existed on Earth during the early part of its history. The lid is the equivalent of the lithosphere in plate tectonics, formed of solid silicate minerals. The relative stability and immobility of the strong cooler lids leads to stagnant lid tectonics, which has greatly reduced amounts of horizontal tectonics compared with plate tectonics. The presence of a stagnant lid above a convecting mantle was recognised as a possible stable regime for convection on Earth, in contrast to the well-attested mobile plate tectonics of the current eon.
Mioara Mandea is Programme Manager for the Solid Earth Observation at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. She won the 2018 European Geosciences Union Petrus Peregrinus Medal and has previously served as their General Secretary. She is best known for her work on geomagnetic jerks, sub-decadal changes in the Earth's magnetic field.
Véronique Dehant is a Belgian geodesist and geophysicist. She specializes in modeling the deformation of the Earth's interior in response to the planet's rotation and the gravitational forces exerted upon it by the Sun and Moon. She has used similar techniques to study Mercury, Venus, Mars and the icy satellites of the outer planets. She primarily works at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, but also serves as an Extraordinary Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain.
Francois Forget is a French astrophysicist, specializing in the exploration of the solar system and planetary environments. He is a research director at the CNRS and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Claude Jaupart is a French geophysicist and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
The Arthur Holmes Medal and Honorary Membership is one of the most prestigious awards of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The medal is awarded to scientists who have achieved exceptional international standing in solid Earth sciences for their contributions and scientific achievements. The medal is awarded annually at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union since 2005. From 1983 to 2004, the Arthur Holmes Medal was awarded by the European Union of Geosciences (EUG), one of the predecessors of the EGU.
Anke Lindner is a German physicist known for her work on Non-Newtonian fluids and viscous fingering, especially in complex suspensions. She is a professor at Paris Diderot University.
Mathilde Cannat is a French geologist known for her research on the formation of oceanic crust and the tectonic and magmatic changes of mid-ocean ridges.
Interview of Anne Davaille for the European Geoscience Union
French doctoral thesis data base
FAST Laboratory, UMR 7608
CNRS directory
2019 Awards and Medals of the European Geoscience Union
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