Plenary Sessions

Prof. Paola Vannucchi
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze.

Understanding the Earth System through scientific drilling

The exploration of the Earth's subseafloor requires a global-scale interdisciplinary research. Ocean scientific drilling has long motivated the international community to pioneer the approach of understanding the Earth as one integrated, interconnected system. This challenge is reflected in the recently published 2050 Science Framework as a living online document that is aimed to guide and encourage Earth scientists, above all geologists, to reach research goals that lie beyond the limits of single Earth science disciplines. Within this overarching framework, I will focus on the frontiers for natural hazards posed by subduction zones.

Prof. György Hetényi
Professor at the University of Lausanne, Institute of Earth Sciences.

The added value of frontier-crossing research projects: a few lessons and opportunities

The early and even some recent achievements in geosciences are the fruit of outstanding efforts and pioneering work of single persons or institutions. With accelerating information flow, numerous large collaborative projects have demonstrated the added value of crossing frontiers in terms of disciplines, scales, and traditions. Examples of various style will be presented in this talk, primarily from Alpine and solid Earth contexts, highlighting the benefits of such projects and also some pitfalls.

Prof. Matteo Massironi
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università di Padova.

Geological Things from other Worlds

We are living in the Golden Age of planetary geology. We have something like 12 missions active on Mars; soonastronauts will imprint again their feet on the lunar soil; sample return missions will be a common fact in the years to come; we will study with an unprecedented detail Mercury and we are planning to do the same with Venus; we will deeply explore the icy moons of Jupiter and we have already visited many other objects in the outer Solar System; we have successfully accompanied a comet along its journey around the sun and landed on its nucleus. It is high time for geologists all over the world to face the fascinating challenge of understanding geology of the Earth and other worlds within the broad context of the Solar System evolution. The future perspectives of planetary exploration will be presented, highlighting the nowadays essential role of geological investigation in planetary sciences.