2023-12-31 14:54:00
Professor Paul Tapponnier, internationally recognized French geophysicist and figure at the University of Montpellier, died on December 24, 2023, at the age of 76, in Beijing.
The University of Montpellier and the international scientific community salute the memory of Professor Paul Tapponnier, a unanimously recognized French geophysicist, who died on December 24, 2023 at the age of 76 in Beijing.
A great geologist of Asia, academician, doctor from the University of Montpellier, the scientist has contributed a lot to the knowledge of the tectonics of Asia. Passionate regarding understanding the Tibetan plateau which the Chinese say is the third pole of the Earth.
The scientist was in fact the first to map the major shifts in Central Asia, proposing a model of expulsion from Tibet in two phases under the pressure of India. He was also interested in ancient earthquakes and associated active faults, not only in the Himalayas, but also in North Africa, the Near East, the Mediterranean and North America.
Paul Tapponnier (1947 – 2023) was the first to rely on satellite images to understand plate tectonics. Kevin Kling
From Montpellier to Beijing, via Boston
Born on January 6, 1947 in Annecy (Haute-Savoie) to a couple of teachers, graduated from the Paris School of Mines in 1970, Paul Tapponnier was recruited in 1971 as an assistant in the Montpellier geology laboratory of Professor Maurice Mattauer, another great scientist from Montpellier.
During a stay at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston in 1973, Paul Tapponnier discovered NASA’s first Landsat satellite images. His pioneering use of these images to study plate mechanics allowed him to discover active faults, particularly in Central Asia, that no one suspected.
While stationed at the CNRS, he defended his doctoral thesis in 1978 at UST Languedoc in 1978 (which became UM2 and now UMontpellier). This thesis constitutes a major contribution to plate tectonics, demonstrating for the first time the importance of the deformation of continents, in particular of the Asian continent, by the functioning of large active faults which generate earthquakes on the planet.
Claude Allègre, who chaired his thesis jury, recruited him in 1980 at the Institute of Globe Physics (IPG) in Paris, where he founded the laboratory of tectonics and mechanics of the lithosphere.
This enthusiast will become the spearhead of the Franco-Chinese collaboration in Tibet, initiated in 1982 following the first visit of President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to China. The beginning of a long saga, particularly in Tibet, where Paul Tapponnier led the various Franco-Chinese cooperation programs in geology developed until today.
Struck by the age limit, he left France in 2008. The following year, he set up his laboratory at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
In 2019, he moved to Beijing, to the National Institute of Natural Hazards, where he leads a team of young Chinese scientists. The disappearance of Paul Tapponnier, on the eve of Christmas 2023, is also a great loss in China.
In his field trips, the geologist was often accompanied by his wife, the photographer Kevin Kling, who notably immortalized the beauty of Tibet with genius.
“The first geologists in Tibet following the departure of the Dalai Lama”
“We were the first geologists to enter Tibet following the departure of the Dalai Lama in 1952,” recalls Maurice Brunel, honorary professor at the University of Montpellier, teacher-researcher, specialist in the tectonics of Asia and the geology of France.
“In 1990, we organized a major Franco-Chinese conference with Paul, in La Grande-Motte, continues his friend from Montpellier. It was the first conference allowing us to take stock of the work following ten years of cooperation.”
“There are six geologists from the University of Montpellier who participated in these Chinese missions,” emphasizes Maurice Brunel. “For my part, I was lucky enough to be part of all the expeditions from 1984 to 2005. Men like Paul Tapponnier are rare, concludes the professor. This outstanding scientist has brought glory to our University of Montpellier.”
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