The ANR MEDSALT project aims to consolidate and expand a scientific network recently formed with the purpose to use scientific drilling to address the causes, timing, emplacement mechanisms and consequences of the largest and most recent 'salt giant' on Earth: the late Miocene (Messinian) salt deposit in the Mediterranean basin. After obtaining the endorsement of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) on a Multiplatform Drilling Proposal (umbrella proposal) in early 2015, the network is planning to submit a site-specific drilling proposal to drill a transect of holes with the R/V Joides Resolution in the evaporite-bearing southern margin of the Balearic promontory in the Western Mediterranean - the aim is to submit the full proposal before the IODP dealine of April 1st 2017, following the submission of a pre-proposal on October 1st 2015. Four key issues will be addressed: 1) What are the causes, timing and emplacement mechanisms of the Mediterranean salt giant ? 2) What are the factors responsible for early salt deformation and fluid flow across and out of the halite layer ? 3) Do salt giants promote the development of a phylogenetically diverse and exceptionally active deep biosphere ? 4) What are the mechanisms underlying the spectacular vertical motions inside basins and their margins ? Our nascent scientific network will consit of a core group of 22 scientists from 10 countries (7 European + USA + Japan + Israel) of which three french scientists (G. Aloisi, J. Lofi and M. Rabineau) play a leading role as PIs of Mediterranean drilling proposals developed within our initiative. Support to this core group will be provided by a supplementary group of 21 scientists that will provide critical knowledge in key areas of our project. The ANR MEDSALT network will finance key actions that include: organising a 43 participants workshops to strengthen and consolidate the Mediterranean drilling community, supporting the participation of network scientists to seismic well site-survey cruises, organising meetings in smaller groups to work on site survey data and finance trips to the US to defend our drilling proposal in front of the IODP Environmental Protection and Safety Panel (EPSP). The MEDSALT drilling initiative will impact the understanding of issues as diverse as submarine geohazards, sub-salt hydrocarbon reservoirs and life in the deep subsurface. This is a unique opportunity for the French scientific community to play a leading role, next to our international partners, in tackling one of the most intellectually challenging open problems in the history of our planet.

The purpose of the GAARAnti project is to unravel couplings between deep Earth dynamics and evolutionary processes through an innovative and original multi-disciplinary study combining Earth and Life sciences. This innovative approach will reconcile biological and geological clocks and timeframes through the combined use of radiochronological methods, biostratigraphy and phylogenetic inferences, to constrain the Cenozoic paleo-biogeography of the Antillean arc. The GAARAnti project will generate novel collaborative works between geologists/marine geophysicists and biologists/paleontologists and new results by constraining the pattern, timing, and dynamics of biodiversity in Lesser Antilles at the Cenozoic scale. This will in turn allow untangling biotic and geological constraints that forced such history. In the frame of the ongoing debate about the Tertiary origin of terrestrial organisms of the Greater Antilles, GAARAnti will focus on the role of subduction dynamics onto the evolution of emergent areas as a promoter or an antagonist of the terrestrial faunas dispersal. Altough it is now widely admitted that most components of Antillean terrestrial communities originated from South and Central America, the mechanisms (dispersal vs vicariance) responsible for the observed evolution and its precise timing are still highly debated. Previous studies have mainly addressed this question through Earth sciences or Life sciences separately. We are confident and deeply believe that our innovative and original multi-disciplinary approach within the GAARAnti project will generate major advances in the knowledge of Cenozoic Antillean biodiversity dynamics. To be efficient, the project is organized in five strongly-interconnected scientific tasks and a supplementary management task including annual meetings (Task 0). Task 1 will quantify past emergent areas through Cenozoic times, and to estimate the timing and duration of land emersion periods (amplitude and rate of vertical motions) both being key constraints for paleo-geographic and paleo-environmental reconstructions. Task 2 will estimate divergence times among living, recently extinct, and fossil mammals from the Lesser Antilles. We will then clarify the pattern and timing of mammalian dispersals into the Caribbean and proposing paleo-biogeographic models. Task 3 will refine the knowledge of the poorly known structure of both the Aves Ridge and the Lesser Antilles back-arc domains, i.e. the most probable dispersal pathways. This task is connected to the GARANTI marine cruise project, taking place in May-June 2017 and aiming at acquiring a large dataset of Wide Angle Seismic and Multi-Channel Seismic lines and dredged/cored samples. Onshore-Offshore correlations will be realized to establish paleogeographic reconstructions at the scale of the Eastern Caribbeans. In Task 4, we will perform 2D/3D numerical and analog models of subduction in order to simulate the surface response (topographic variations) to deep processes and to propose a global framework for the geodynamic evolution of the Lesser Antilles arc during the Cenozoic. Task 5 is a central and federative task in the project aiming at 1) establishing palinspastic reconstructions, 2) testing the influence of abiotic (temperature, eustasy, continental domain surfaces) vs biotic variables (species diversity, clade diversity, clade-specific shifts) based on birth-death models and 3) develop new mixed models to test the link between abiotic and biotic variables (to be assembled during the project) and the macro-evolutionary dynamics of studied groups in the Antilles. Beyond the novel expected scientific outcomes, the GAARAnti project will promote the preservation of both the geological and paleontological patrimony of the Antilles, to disseminate the results through local institutions of scientific popularization that are associated to the projects and through collaborations with local primary and high schools and Guadeloupe ESPE.

As a consequence of change in hydrological cycles and the increase of exposed goods, the risk of landslides is globally growing all over the world. As a consequence, short-time landslide prediction is a fundamental tool for risk mitigation. To this aim, real-time monitoring and interpretation methods aiming at a full exploitation of the available landslide information are needed, including further development of sensor technology and use of advanced numerical modeling. The most commonly used warning parameters are direct measurements of slope displacement and pore-water pressures. However, recent research on landslide controlled by slope hydrology has shown that other parameters (e.g. soil moisture) can be used and other methods (e.g. electrical resistivity tomography, electrical spontaneous potential) are available, which might give indications on triggering even before an actual displacement is measureable and thus could possibly be used as physical precursors for short-term warning. The CNRS – Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre (EOST) and the Geological Survey of Austria – Geophysical Division (GBA) started successfully to evaluate time-lapse resistivity measurements for monitoring changes in water content/flows in landslides (Travelletti et al., 2012; Supper et al., 2014; Gance et al., 2015) at different monitoring sites. At the same period, CNRS also started to establish the French Observatory on Landslides (OMIV: omiv.unistra.fr), which task is the long term monitoring and data sharing of landslide parameters (geodesy, hydrology, seismic). Results from these projects proved that electrical resistivity monitoring can be successfully applied to detect changes in water storage and to understand water circulation in complex landslide bodies. However, especially for clayey landslides, this method is only applicable with limitation, since the resistivity of clays shows almost the same values as the resistivity of the saturated soil (15-20 O.m). Consequently, the change in water content expressed in the electrical resistivity is difficult to identify. Therefore the extension of the concept of resistivity to Induced Polarization (IP) (both in the time and spectral domains) is proposed in order to better understand the relationships between physical and hydro(geo)logical properties of the slope material. To understand the landslide triggering mechanisms, surface and in-depth deformation have to be monitored. Up to now, most of the landslides monitoring sites are equipped with GNSS receivers and total station benchmarks at the surface or inclinometers at depths, which provide only point (1D) information and/or have limitations at high displacement rates. To solve interpretation ambiguities and to account for spatial changes, not only point information, but also horizontally and vertically (borehole) distributed displacement/strain observations are necessary. New approaches are suggested in the project, namely temperature and strain monitoring at high frequency with Fiber-Optic (FO) cables both at the surface and in boreholes, sensing of surface deformation with Ultra-High Resolution (UHR, 20 cm) optical images (time-lapse ground based cameras). The combined application of these methods for landslide monitoring is very rare and has not been tested rigorously. Further, the joint interpretation of electrical resistivity, soil temperature, hydrological and strain data need to be supported by coupled multi-physical modelling in order to quantitatively establish petrophysical relationships for several slope configurations, material properties and groundwater conditions. The applicability of the approach will be evaluated at three landslide sites representative of different hydrological forcings: La Valette (South French Alps; Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), Lodève (South Central Massif, Hérault) and Ampflwang/Hausruckwald (Oberösterreich).

The breakup of continents and creation of new oceans is a fundamental yet poorly understood plate tectonic process. It is essential not only in terms of fundamental Earth Sciences because it results in the formation of new plate boundaries and ocean basins, but it also has a major social impact, as it will create places of high natural hazards. Its study is yet challenging because most of the ancient margins where breakup occurred are obscured with thick piles of sediments and/or located under deep water. Among still debated topics the rift initiation and the driving forces are burning questions: What controls the strain location? How does the breakup interact with mantle heterogeneities such as plumes and inherited lithospheric fabrics? How do the forces exerted by far-field and mantle processes change during rift evolution? Particularly, the interactions between deep (mantle) and superficial (crustal) processes are controversial and topical subjects. We propose here to acquire new field, geophysical, geochemical and petrophysical data in a rifting inception place, the Tanzania rift, to constrain and test 2D and 3D models of continental lithospheric extension associated with repeated episodes of magma intrusion. This combination of data acquisition, novel inversions and models will allow us to: (1) map the spatial distribution of strain in space and time using geophysical and geodetic methods; (2) constrain crust and upper mantle structure; (3) characterize the chemistry and spatial distribution of crustal fluids and magma; (4) quantify the volume of magma intruded into the crust through seismic data interpretation combined with InSAR, and (5) distinguish the role of the different processes involved in continental rifting through numerical modelling.

Severe shortage in good quality water reserves is a global problem that will increase with a growing world population. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) will contribute to replenish depleted aquifers and restore ecological services in fresh water ecosystems. However, risks associated to the occurrence of pathogens and anthropogenic emerging pollutants in groundwater have led to question the reuse of reclaimed water for MAR. MARadentro aims to assess and minimize these risks, and to increase the benefits of MAR guaranteeing human health and environment protection through the development of affordable and effective permeable reactive layers. These integrate biotic and abiotic processes to enhance pathogen retention and inactivation and pollutant adsorption and degradation by making available a broad range of sorption sites and a sequence of redox states. The applicability of the proposed MAR layers will be validated by upscaling from lab and pilot experiments to field scale studies. Transport modelling, risk assessment, economic balance and establishment of recommendations to stakeholders and authorities in the water sector will guarantee the smooth implementation of this MAR concept and the positive public response to water reuse. The transfer of the knowledge gathered in MARadentro to policy makers will help in EU regulation on MAR.