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Jerome Lave
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Project title: Mountain evolution in response to tectonic and erosive processesJérôme Lavé is one of the most active researchers in erosion and active tectonics in France. After studying geophysics at the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris, he earned his Ph.D. in geophysics in 1997, then worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Pennsylvania State University before getting a permanent position at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1999. Until 2007 he was working at the Laboratoire des Chaînes Alpines (LGCA) in Grenoble, France, and recently joined the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG) in Nancy. Lavé is driven by an attempt to deepen our understanding of the building and erosion of terrestrial relief, and of the processes that drive mountain evolution in response to both tectonic and climatic forcing. For a decade, he has been tackling the problem of stream incision, in particular, with projects involving field work, experimental and numerical approaches, and the development of new sensors to monitor fluvial erosion during floods. He has been also working for 15 years in the Himalayas, identifying its seismotectonic behavior, measuring erosion rates and processes, and studying fluvial terraces and glaciers for paleoclimate reconstructions. Because mountains are so fascinating, Lavé has mainly focused his research on active collision zones (Himalaya, Zagros, Longmen Shan) where large topographies are presently built. However, he is curious about many natural phenomena, and has demonstrated broad interest in Earth sciences problems from seismic anisotropy to palaeoclimate, including crustal seismotectonic, landscape erosion, sediment tracking and abrasion, numerical modeling of geomorphic processes, and the use of cosmogenic nuclides for paleoaltimetric or morphoclimatic issues. Now a CIRES visiting fellow, Lavé is working with CIRES Fellow Roger Bilham on the development of new erosion sensors, and on the seismotectonics of the Himalayas. He is also collaborating with CIRES Fellows Peter Molnar to document the mechanical response of the crust and lithosphere to a localized zone of high erosion, and with Gregory Tucker, to incorporate sediment evolution by abrasion into Tucker’s landscape evolution model, CHILD. Office: Benson, Rm. 440B |
