ETH News

Deep geothermal energy is climate-friendly and base-load capable - but how can this heat be tapped safely? ETH researchers are working on minimizing the earthquake risk and developing completely new systems, for example with closed CO₂ cycles.

Brienz has just been evacuated for the second time. The decision is based, among other things, on thousands of simulations that ETH professor Jordan Aaron has produced using a computer model he developed. In an interview with ETH News, he explains why this model was used.

Catastrophic volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet millions of years ago shed new light on how plants evolve and regulate climate. Researchers reveal the long-term climate effects of disturbed natural ecosystems - its implications both in geological history and for today.

The Department of Earth Sciences at ETH Zurich has been renamed the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, abbreviated to D-EAPS, effective 1 August. Head of Department Johan Robertsson explains why the renaming was both logical and necessary.

An international team of researchers combine orbital imagery with seismological data from NASA’s Mars InSight lander to derive a new impact rate for meteorite strikes on Mars. Seismology also offers a new tool for determining the density of Mars’ craters and the age of different regions of a planet.

In order to understand the Earth's resilience, researchers at ETH Zurich are modelling climate changes from times long past. And they show: Plants are not simply victims of circumstances, but have helped to shape climate conditions on Earth.

It might be that what set prebiotic chemistry in motion and kept it going in the early days of the Earth was dust from outer space accumulating in holes melted into ice sheets. Researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge have used a computer model to test this scenario.

Switzerland offers tremendous opportunities for technological and entrepreneurial innovation. Thomas Zurbuchen asks, “How can we generate the momentum needed to maintain an edge in the face of international competition – especially when times get tough?”

Hardly any gemstone is more difficult to find than diamonds. Geologists from ETH Zurich and the University of Melbourne have now established a link between their occurrence and the mineral olivine. This could make the search for diamonds easier in the future.

A new Master’s degree programme in Space Systems will be launched at ETH Zurich in autumn 2024. Interested parties can start applying in April.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a sensor that utilises energy from sound waves to control electronic devices. This could one day save millions of batteries.

The European Space Agency’s most expensive and complex mission, the LISA space antenna, has reached a major milestone: it has passed the stage of intensive testing by experts in the Mission Adoption Review process - a significant step for the LISA consortium.

Craig Walton is the first NOMIS Fellow at the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich. With an unconventional idea, he wants to find out the conditions under which life originated on Earth.

Capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere and storing it either in recycled concrete aggregate or in geological reservoirs in Iceland is not only technically feasible, but also has a positive carbon footprint. These are the findings of a pilot project lead by ETH Zurich and commissioned by the Swiss confederation.

Whether on research vessels or testing her limits as an analog astronaut and pilot, alumna Sandra Herrmann has an irrepressible appetite for adventure, fuelled in part by her experiences at ETH Zurich.

Seismologist Andreas Fichtner uses the newest technologies to explore the interior of the Earth. His research with seismic waves has also found applicability in the field of medicine.  

Geophysicists at ETH Zurich have shown that every single wave of a magnitude 3.9 earthquake registers in the noise suppression system of fibre-optic networks. This method can be used to set up close-meshed earthquake and tsunami early warning systems at low cost.

Mars’s liquid iron core is smaller and denser than previously thought. Not only is it smaller, but it is also surrounded by a layer of molten rock. This is what ETH Zurich researchers conclude on the basis of seismic data from the InSight lander.

At its meeting of 24 and 25 May 2023 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed nine professors and awarded the title of professor twice. At the same time, the Board also bid farewell to nine professors and thanked them for their service.

Yesterday, Swiss President Alain Berset toured the Carbfix plant in Iceland and visited the facilities where the pilot project "DemoUpCARMA" is implemented. The project aims at injecting and storing CO₂ in the Icelandic underground. Marco Mazzotti, project coordinator and ETH Zurich professor, explains why Swiss CO₂ is being shipped all the way to Iceland.

A strong quake in the last year of the NASA Mars InSight mission, enabled researchers at ETH Zurich to determine the global thickness and density of the planet's crust. On average, the Martian crust is much thicker than the Earth’s or the Moon’s crust, and the planet’s main source of heat is radioactive.

In the video series "Ask the Expert", experts from ETH Zurich answer questions from the community. In this edition, Stefan Wiemer provides information on the topic of earthquakes.

ETH Zurich researcher Luca Dal Zilio offers an insightful summary of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, shedding light on the complex nature of this event. He discusses the lessons that can be drawn from it to better understand and prepare for future seismic occurrences in the region.

In the video series "Ask the Expert", ETH Zurich experts answer questions from the community. In this edition, Maren Brehme provides information on the topic of geothermal energy.

At its meeting of 8 and 9 March and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed 14 professors and awarded the title of professor five times. At the same time, the Board also bid farewell to three professors and thanked them for their service.

The Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich has just introduced the first seismic risk model for Switzerland. It shows the potential impact of earthquakes on people and buildings in the country.

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? There’s a good chance it does – though it might look very different to life on Earth. Scientists may soon be able to offer a definitive answer.

The lander’s team has tried to contact the spacecraft twice without response, leading them to conclude it has run out of energy.

Nobel laureate and astrophysicist Didier Queloz and earth scientist Cara Magnabosco on the origin of life on Earth, complex life beyond our planet, and the inevitable end of every life.

Nine scientists are receiving SNSF Starting Grants for projects they plan to carry out at ETH Zurich starting next year.

Following two large meteorite impacts on Mars, researchers have observed, for the first time, seismic waves propagating along the surface of a planet other than Earth. The data from the marsquakes was recorded by NASA’s InSight lander and analysed at ETH Zurich in collaboration with the InSight Science Team. It provides new insights into the structure of the Martian crust.

Until now, Mars has been generally considered a geologically dead planet. An international team of researchers led by ETH Zurich now reports that seismic signals indicate vulcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an approach to accurately record and fully track the biodegradation of plastics in soils.  

At its meeting of 21 and 22 September 2022 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed four professors and awarded the title of “Professor of Practice” once.

ETH Zurich is opening a new research and teaching centre with a focus on exploring the origin and prevalence of life on Earth and beyond. Under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Didier Queloz, more than 40 research groups from five departments will address the big questions posed by humankind.

Researchers from ETH Zurich discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth’s mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed.

As wave specialists, seismologists map the structure of planets from the information that seismic waves carry. Now, the team led by ETH professor Andreas Fichtner is also using this knowledge for medical imaging.

An international research team led by ETH Zurich proposes a new theory for the Earth’s formation. It may also show how other rocky planets were formed.

How the plates of the Earth’s crust move depends largely on the behaviour of the rocks below them in the mantle. A new ETH study now shows that the grain size of these rocks is a key factor.

The InSight mission on Mars is running out of power and most of its functions could be shut down in the months to come. Some have already been deactivated. However, the attached seismometer, SEIS, will remain in operation for as long as possible. ETH Professor Domenico Giardini takes stock of three years of marsquake measurements.

An international team of researchers led by the ETH Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS have reconstructed the early history of several asteroids more precisely than ever before. Their results indicate that the early solar system was more chaotic than previously thought.

At its meeting of 18 and 19 May and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed 13 professors and awarded the title of professor four times. At the same time, the Board also bid farewell to 15 professors and thanked them for their service.

European scientists with the participation of the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich have published an updated earthquake hazard map and, for the first time, an earthquake risk map for Europe. Switzerland will follow suit next year with a higher resolution national risk map.

Geophysicist Mauro Häusler is a Pioneer Fellow at ETH Zurich. He uses a seismic method to investigate rock instabilities and wants to establish himself as a service provider in the geoengineering industry.

The Swiss Polar Institute has launched a four-year study led by EPFL in which researchers from several other Swiss institutions are investigating the impact of climate change on Greenland’s fjord ecosystems. Research groups from ETH Zurich are also involved.  

The rapid development of fauna 540 million years ago has permanently changed the Earth - deep into its lower mantle. A team led by ETH researcher Andrea Giuliani found traces of this development in rocks from this zone.

Located near Naples, Italy, Vesuvius last had a violent eruption in 1944, towards the end of the Second World War. It could be a few hundred years before another dangerous, explosive eruption occurs, finds a new study by volcano experts at ETH Zurich.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated in the lab how well a mineral common at the boundary between the Earth’s core and mantle conducts heat. This leads them to suspect that the Earth’s heat may dissipate sooner than previously thought.

In the last application process for the sought-after ERC Starting Grants, the European Research Council made 11 awards to ETH researchers worth about CHF 17 million. Due to Switzerland’s non-association, however, the researchers will not receive these grants. The funds will now be provided by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

Like bridges and tall buildings, large mountains are constantly vibrating, excited by seismic energy form the Earth. An international team of researchers has now been able to measure the resonant swaying of the Matterhorn and make its motion visible using computer simulations.

At its meeting of 8 and 9 December 2021 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed ten professors and awarded the title of professor twice.

Geophysicists can use a new model to explain the behaviour of a tectonic plate sinking into a subduction zone in the Earth’s mantle: the plate becomes weak and thus more deformable when mineral grains on its underside are shrunk in size.

The more water is dissolved in the magma, the greater the risk that a volcano will explode. A new ETH study now shows that this simple rule is only partially true. Paradoxically, high water content significantly reduces the risk of explosion.

Switzerland may soon be facing a shortage of railway ballast. ETH geologists are heading into the wilds to track down new sources of crushed rocks.

ETH researchers have devised an ingenious method of using acoustics to conceal and simulate objects.

Many everyday activities rely on electricity. As we look to 2050, this dependence is set to increase, with demand for electricity in Switzerland likely to rise to 50 percent. The increased demand can only be met by transforming the energy system.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. Marsquakes recorded by NASA’s InSight lander provided information about the structure of the planet’s crust, mantle and core.

Researchers at ETH Zurich working together with an international team have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. They measured the crust, mantle and core and narrowed down their composition. The three resulting articles are being published together as a cover story in the journal Science.

While Domenico Giardini, Professor of Seismology and Geodynamics, already has his hands on Mars, Adrian Glauser, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, has to be patient. Among many others, Adrian worked on the James-Webb-Telescope that shall finally launch this fall, with a delay of many years.

Uranus and Neptune both have a completely skewed magnetic field, perhaps due to the planets’ special inner structures. But new experiments by ETH Zurich researchers now show that the mystery remains unsolved.

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH Zurich was among the top ten in 15 different disciplines. The university remains the global leader in earth sciences.

Using the extinct niobium-92 atom, ETH researchers have been able to date events in the early solar system with greater precision than before. The study concludes that supernova explosions must have taken place in the birth environment of our sun.

Terrestrial ecosystems help mitigate climate change by absorbing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. A new study now confirms that changing climate conditions could reduce this effect because in warmer and wetter areas, carbon stored in the soil is released back into the atmosphere more quickly.

Phobos and Deimos are the remains of a larger Martian moon that was disrupted between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, say researchers from the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich and the Physics Institute at the University of Zurich. In collaboration with the U.S. Naval Observatory, they reached this conclusion using computer simulations and seismic recordings from the InSight Mars mission.

Determining the composition of rock in the deepest layer of the Earth’s mantle is impossible to do directly. But thanks to isotope measurements of volcanic rocks, ETH researchers are now able to show that the mantle is still home to material from the planet’s earliest days.

Terrestrial planets versus gas and ice giants: A new theory explaining why the inner solar system is so different to the outer regions runs counter to the prevailing wisdom. The theory was proposed by an international research group with ETH Zurich’s participation.

Oxygen levels in the ancient oceans were surprisingly resilient to climate change, new research suggests.

At its meeting of 9 and 10 December 2020 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed 14 professors. They will work in a total of ten departments in a wide range of research areas. In addition, an ecotoxicologist was awarded the title of professor.

A team of international scientists led by ETH researcher Paolo Sossi has gained new insights into Earth’s atmosphere of 4.5 billion years ago. Their results have implications for the possible origins of life on Earth.

Researchers from four leading European technical universities, all members of IDEA League, are looking for new solutions against climate change in the EASYGO project.

Hot and humid: Using minerals from ancient soils, ETH researchers are reconstructing the climate that prevailed on Earth some 55 million years ago. Their findings will help them to better assess how our climate might look in the future.

Current understanding is that the chemical composition of the Earth’s mantle is relatively homogeneous. But experiments conducted by ETH researchers now show that this view is too simplistic. Their results solve a key problem facing the geosciences – and raise some new questions.

Fibre-optic cables are emerging as a valuable tool for geoscientists and glaciologists. They offer a relatively inexpensive way of measuring even the tiniest glacial earthquakes – plus they can also be used to obtain more accurate images of the geological subsurface in earthquake-prone megacities.

ETH researchers have used a computer model to test a new hypothesis about the formation of the Alps while simulating seismic activity in Switzerland. This will help improve current earthquake risk models.

NASA’s InSight mission provides data from the surface of Mars. Its seismometer, equipped with electronics built at ETH Zurich, not only records marsquakes, but unexpectedly reacts to solar eclipses as well. When the Martian moon, Phobos moves directly in front of the sun, the instrument tips slightly to one side. This miniscule effect could aid researchers in determining the planet’s interior.

Research recently published in the journal “Science” has shown that lockdown measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 lead to a 50% reduction in seismic noise observed around the world in early to mid-2020.

ETH researchers used computer simulations to classify the current activity of corona structures on the surface of Venus. To their surprise, they found a previously undiscovered ring of fire on our neighbouring planet.

Researchers from the Swiss Seismological Service SED and ETH Zurich are working with the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS and the Università della Svizzera italiana USI to develop a way of utilising geothermal energy safely with the help of supercomputers.

Maria Schönbächler investigates how our solar system formed. Her work often reminds her of the importance of breaking out of established patterns.

A research team from ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen counted over 136,000 rockfalls on the moon caused by asteroid impacts. Even billions of years old landscapes are still changing.

The use of dirty coal as a heat source makes life tough in the Mongolian winter. ETH geophysicists are helping to develop geothermal energy as a clean alternative.

Fifteen months after the successful landing of the NASA InSight mission on Mars, first scientific analyses of ETH Zurich researchers and their partners reveal that the planet is seismically active. The recorded data enables a better understanding of the interior of Mars, the primary goal of the InSight mission.

Researchers determined the age of stardust from a meteorite to be seven billion years - the oldest solid material ever found on Earth.

Some of the Earth's building material was stardust from red giants, researchers from ETH Zurich have established. They can also explain why the Earth contains more of this stardust than the asteroids or the planet Mars, which are farther from the sun.

Twenty years ago, Switzerland ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. This important agreement is based on a sophisticated network that makes it possible to monitor compliance with the treaty.

Two ETH Zurich projects and one with ETH involvement have been awarded one of the coveted ERC Synergy Grants. These EU grants offer up to EUR 14 million to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on research projects.

Clay minerals suspended in seawater binds sedimentary organic carbon to their mineral surfaces. But the quantity of carbon that is bound and the source of that carbon very much depends on the clay mineral in question. A research team from ETH Zurich and Tongji University have shown this by studying sediments in the South China Sea.

So far it has not been possible to predict whether a strong quake will probably be followed by a stronger one or not. A new study by researchers from the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich gives rise to hopes of being able to make predictions in almost real time.

A unique project is linking in-situ measurements with natural hazards research. For the past ten years, a network of wireless sensors on the Matterhorn’s Hörnli ridge has been constantly streaming measurement data on the condition of steep rock faces, permafrost and prevailing climate. The project leader, Jan Beutel, reviews progress to date.

Fifty years after Apollo 11 astronauts deployed the first seismometer on the surface of the Moon, NASA InSight’s seismic experiment transmits data giving researchers the opportunity to compare marsquakes to moon and earthquakes.

Earth’s climate entered a long phase of cooling 15 million years ago, resulting in an ice age. A team of researchers has now found new indications as to what initiated this cooling and kept it going.

By determining the age of meteorites, ETH researchers have solved the riddle of their origins and formation: the rocks are over 4.5 billion years old and originate from Vesta, the second-largest asteroid in the main belt.

On the recommendation of ETH President Joël Mesot, the ETH Board appointed several new ETH professors and conferred the title of ETH professor on two researchers during its meeting on 22 and 23 May 2019. All the new appointments consciously connect their subject expertise with other disciplines.

Four months after landing on Mars, the InSight probe has already transmitted promising signals. According to researchers at ETH Zurich's Marsquake Service, at least one of the tremors can be interpreted as a quake.

ETH experts in earth sciences and engineering geology have tested out a new method on the Rhone glacier that will allow detailed examination of the interior of the glacier and its movement. The effectiveness of this new technique was better than expected.

In its latest awarding process for the prestigious ERC Advanced Grants, the European Research Council (ERC) has selected five ambitious projects being conducted by ETH Zurich researchers who have been at the top of their respective fields for many years. As a result, ETH will receive approximately 12.5 million euros in research funding.

Over the last million years, glacial cycles have intensified and lengthened. According to a study, this previously unexplained climate transition coincides with a diminution of the mixing between deep and surface waters in the Southern Ocean.

Earth’s solid surface and clement climate may be in part due to a massive star in the birth environment of the Sun. Without its radioactive elements injected into the early solar system, our home planet could be a hostile ocean world covered in global ice sheets. This is the result of computer simulations of planet formation.

ETH Zurich is fostering responsible air travel to help resolve the conflict between international research activities and climate protection. ETH units worked together to set targets for reducing flight-related CO₂ emissions.

In order to achieve ambitious international climate objectives, it will be necessary to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it. A project in the Jura mountains is now testing how rock fractures impair long-term reservoirs.