Anne Pommier’s research

EARTH AND PLANETARY INTERIOR RESEARCH USING LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS

My research is dedicated to understanding how terrestrial planets work, and especially the role of silicate and metallic melts in planetary interiors, from the scale of volcanic magma reservoirs to core-scale and planetary-scale processes. Scientific interests span “deep time” (e.g., planet formation and evolution) to the present (e.g., kinetics of magmatic processes). The adopted approach consists of investigating scientific questions based on laboratory measurements, by conducting experiments under pressure and temperature in order to probe the physical and chemical properties of mantle and core analogues. The technique that my group and I use is based on experimental petrology, including phase-relationship experiments and the use of in situ and real-time techniques such as impedance spectroscopy. 

While powerful, laboratory measurements alone are not sufficient to improve our understanding of geological processes. Therefore, we work in close collaboration with researchers in geophysics, planetary sciences, geodynamics, and field petrology in order to further our interpretation of both lab and field data and to better constrain scientific questions involving, for instance, the presence of partially molten areas in the upper mantle and the cooling of terrestrial cores.