IPGP

Its mission is to achieve research and provide education in the fields of geosciences but the institute is also in charge of monitoring the natural phenomena. The institute conducts research in all the fields of studies of the solid Earth (geophysics, geochemistry, and quantitative geology) by combining observations on land and at sea, from laboratory analysis to the construction of conceptual, analogical and numerical models.

Current developments direct towards new and promising fields such as terrestrial materials under extreme conditions, the primitive Earth and its first billion years, the interfaces between solid ground and fluid envelopes, the interactions between Earth and life sciences.

The study of the natural risks includes the responsibility for the monitoring of the three French active volcanoes ("La Soufrière" of Guadeloupe - Mount "Pelée" - in Martinique and the et "Le Piton de la Fournaise" on Reunion Island ), the worldwide network of seismological stations GEOSCOPE, and a major contribution to the worldwide network of magnetic observatories INTERMAGNET.