Public lecture as part of the search committee in Tectonics and structural geology

Summary: About 70% of the Earth’s surface consists of oceans, yet we know more about the surface of Mars than about our own ocean floor. Most of the information that we have on oceanic crust comes from observations made on ophiolites (fragments of oceanic crust that have been emplaced on land), or from data acquired through techniques that allow us to image the ocean’s (sub)surface or retrieve samples from the ocean floor. So, what does oceanic crust look like? How much lithological variation do we find along a mid-oceanic ridge or in a back-arc basin? And how do these different types of crust respond to deformation by tectonic processes? In my research I try to answer these questions by combining onshore and offshore geological field observations and geophysical techniques that help in understanding the spatial and temporal evolution of oceanic crust in a wide range of geological settings.