Mining, groundwater, coastal erosion, shale gas, geothermal energy: The high demand for mineral, oil, and gas resources; sustainable groundwater management; the environmental risks associated with geological processes; and the impact of climate change are all issues of concern to our geoscience researchers.
Research conducted at the INRS emphasizes current geological processes and how they impact the environment. The Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre and the Quebec office of the Quebec Geoscience Centre (a division of Natural Resources Canada) have partnered to create the and are working together under a scientific collaboration agreement. The partnership has spawned one of the biggest geoscience research groups in the country, including one of Canada’s top hydrogeology hubs.
Groundwater
Research teams are working to help ensure the protection, rehabilitation, and sustainable management of groundwater resources. In addition to drawing up a groundwater inventory, they are looking closely at how contaminants behave in soil and aquifers.
Geodynamics, volcanology, and basin analysis
Researchers in this area probe the geodynamic and eruptive processes responsible for the formation and concentration of metalliferous and diamond resources and hydrocarbons.
Environmental geology
Riverbank and coastal erosion, silting of river beds and navigable waterways, changing aquatic habitats, and problems associated with geological hazards are among the topics researchers are addressing
Paleoenvironments
Research teams are creating new tools based on biological and sedimentological indicators to reconstruct the environments of the past. One of their goals is to analyze how natural hazards and climate change impact the environment.
Geological reservoirs and deep thermal energy
Teams are working to characterize deep reservoirs and their geological environments (for CO2 sequestration, among other things), studying Quebec’s deep thermal energy potential, and conducting geological modelling of natural gas and methane storage sites.
Mineral and oil resources
Research is being conducted to learn more about different types of metallogenic and oil environments, develop tools to identify new, high-potential mineral and oil exploration zones, and come up with methods for the characterization, reuse, and recycling of mining waste and specific minerals in order to extract the metal they contain.</p>
Isotopic geochemistry
Applied geophysics
Structural Geology
Hydrogeology
Hydrogeology
Hydrogeological modeling
Geothermal energy
Applied geosciences
Volcanology and Economic Geology
Structural Geology
