We couple Himalayan tectonics to numerical simulations to show how upward-tapering channel (UTC) flow can be used to explain the evidence. The simulations predict high tectonic overpressure (TOP > 2), which increases exponentially with a decrease in UTC mouth width, and with increase in velocity and channel viscosity. The highest TOP occurs at depths < −60 km, which, combined with the flow in the UTC, forces high-pressure rocks to exhume along the channel’s hanging wall, as in the Himalayas.

The alluvial fan of Ghor Al-Haditha (Dead Sea) is affected by subsidence and sinkholes. Different models and hypothetical processes have been suggested in the past; high-resolution shear wave reflection surveys carried out in 2013 and 2014 showed the absence of evidence for a massive shallow salt layer as formerly suggested. Thus, a new process interpretation is proposed based on both the dissolution and physical erosion of Dead Sea mud layers.

By quantifying trace concentrations of titanium in quartz (a known geologic “thermometer”), we constrain the temperature profile for the deep crust along the Alpine Fault. We show there is a sharp change from fairly uniform temperatures at deep levels to a very steep gradient in temperature in the upper kilometers of the crust.

We studied porosity changes of slates from eastern Switzerland, which were deposited in an ocean in front of the emerging Alps during the Cenozoic. The Alpine collision between the European and African plates brought the rocks from this basin to today’s position in the Alps. From the basin to the surface, the porosity first decreased down to a small number of round cavities (<1 vol%) to microfractures, and once at the surface, the porosity increased again due to the formation of macro-fractures.

Slope aspect significantly but differently affected the soil microbial biomass carbon and phospholipid fatty acid contents. Soil carbon and nitrogen have the largest effect on the soil microbial properties. The rhizospheric effect caused significant difference between rhizospheric and non-rhizospheric soil microbial properties. Slope aspect affected the mechanisms driving the structure of microbial communities in a micro-ecosystem environment.

I present the GHOST (Geoscientific Hollow Sphere Tessellation) software which allows for the fast generation of computational meshes in hollow sphere geometries counting up to a hundred million cells. Each mesh is composed of concentric spherical shells made of quadrilaterals or triangles. I focus here on three commonly used meshes used in the geodynamics/geophysics community and further benchmark the gravity and gravitational potential procedures in the simple case of a constant density.

We used seismology data to estimate the thickness of the MTZ and found it thinned beneath Tarim, which is exactly beneath the Permian basalts. This relation can be reconciled with coherent translation of a tectosphere that extends to a depth of 410 km or more. Combined with observations in the Siberian large igneous province and Greenland, these features may confirm the existence of a deep tectosphere. Alternatively, the shift of Tarim is less than predicted by an order of magnitude.

Fragmentation of continents often involves obliquely rifting segments that feature a complex three-dimensional structural evolution. Here we show that more than ~ 70 % of Earth’s rifted margins exceeded an obliquity of 20° demonstrating that oblique rifting should be considered the rule, not the exception. This highlights the importance of three-dimensional approaches in modelling, surveying, and interpretation of those rift segments where oblique rifting is the dominant mode of deformation.