To unlock our planet’s

mysteries, scientists need

to recreate the extreme

pressures and temperatures

deep inside its interior. With

uniquely stable, nanometric

beams enabling diffraction and

imaging of smaller samples

on shorter timescales, ESRF-

EBS allows scientists to study matter at once-

unreachable pressures found inside planets like

Jupiter or Neptune.

Research using beamlines ID27 and ID15B has

identified the formation temperature of superionic

ice and revealed methanol trapped in hydrates on

icy moons, advancing models of planetary interiors

and subsurface oceans, while the ERC LECOR

project investigates the composition of the Earth’s

core by probing seismic wave velocities in iron-rich

materials under extreme conditions. Combining

sample environments reaching the pressures and

temperatures of planetary cores with advanced

instrumentation for nuclear and inelastic scattering

at ID14 and ID28 and submicron Xray diffraction

at ID27 and ID15B LECOR compares experimental

data with seismic observations to refine models of

Earths interior measurements uniquely possible

at ESRFEBS

ESRFEBSs highly stable beams also enable

CHRONOS a programme for longduration studies

of slow processes such as volcanic eruptions and

climate change Another example is the ERC BREAK

project that uses insitu and operando Xray imaging

to detect fault slips that lead to earthquakes

ESRFEBS SCIENCE THAT SERVES I 15

PUSHING THE LIMITS OF GEOSCIENCE

AND PLANETARY RESEARCH

EBS SCIENCE

X-Ray Signature of the Superionic Transition in Warm

Dense fcc Water Ice, A. Forestier et al., Phys. Rev.

Lett 134 076102 2025

Methanol storage in highpressure clathrate

hydrates as a prolonged source of methane in large

ocean worlds A Pakhomova et al Earth Planet Sci

Lett 666 119478 2025

Mixedmode deformation in a rock bridge

between two fault segments E Prastyani et al

Tectonophysics 897 230624 2025

Time-lapse synchrotron X-ray tomography at ESRF

beamlines BM18 and ID19 revealed how fractures and

strain develop in rock samples in three dimensions,

capturing extensile (yellow) and shear (grey) fractures

alongside dilation (blue) and shear strain (pink) in real time.

Image courtesy of ref. 3.

These cutting-edge experiments are opening new

frontiers in geoscience, providing humanity with novel

insights into the processes that shape our world.