History

The first “Journées Serpentines” was a small two-day workshop organized by Catherine Mével (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, IPGP) at the headquarters of the Société Géologique de France in Paris (France) on November 20-21, 2003; it brought together the French community with an interest in the mineralogy, crystallography and chemistry of serpentines, on serpentinization in abyssal and ophiolitic peridotites and on its impacts on geodynamics, geochemical cycles and geo-resources. 

The second “Journées Serpentines” workshop was organized in Grenoble (France) in 2007 (October 10-12, 2007) by Anne-Marie Boullier and Stéphane Guillot (Université de Grenoble). Because of the success of the first workshop, the scientific committee broadened the topics to include environmental issues to research in planetology and exobiology. The participants were mostly French but also included several specialists from Switzerland and Italy. A field trip was organized on the Chamrousse Ophiolite.

In 2012 (September 2-6), the third workshop was organized as an international venue by Muriel Andréani and Isabelle Daniel (Université de Lyon), Anne-Line Auzende (Université de Grenoble), and Adélie Delacour (Université de Saint-Etienne): it then became the “Serpentine Days”. It was held on the Porquerolles Island on the Côte d’Azur (France), with a large participation of specialists from Europe and the United States, working on the serpentinization and carbonation of peridotites, with a strong support from the Deep Carbon Observatory (2009-2019)

The fourth “Serpentine Days” workshop was organized in Sète in 2016 (September 25-29) by Marguerite Godard and José-Alberto Padron-Navarta (Géosciences Montpellier), Bénedicte Menez (IPGP) and Bruno Reynard (Université de Lyon). It brought together more than 85 scientists from 13 countries with broad interest and expertise on all processes related to serpentinization to share new findings in this exciting field of research on Earth, as well as Mars and other planets with the participation of NASA.

The workshop was concluded by a two-day field trip to the Pyrénées led by Yves Lagabrielle (Université de Rennes) and Michel de Saint-Blanquat (Université Paul Sabatier – Toulouse), joined by more than 40 participants, with a focus on the carbonation and serpentinization imprints in the lherzolitic bodies from the North Pyrenean Zone (Étang de Lers and Bestiac).

SerpentineDays Webinars 2022

It was during one evening at the Serpentine Days 2016 event in Sète that it was decided that Marco Scambelluri (University of Genova), Alberto Vitale Brovarone (University of Bologna), Nadege Hilairet (University of Lille), Alexis Templeton (University of Colorado Boulder) and Oliver Plümper (Utrecht University) should take the lead in organizing SerpentineDays 2020. Due to Covid SerpentineDays moved online and a fantastic new seminar series on serpentinites was started. We will continue the series in 2023/2024.

5th SerpentineDays 2024

We are looking forward to the 5th Serpentine Days, which will be held in Granada (Spain).