在世界屋脊，探索中国

对于青藏高原以及更为宽泛的亚洲文化与历史，我的母亲一直都很着迷。因此，伴随着这些东亚的民间故事，我度过了自己的童年。

来到青藏高原

身处户外，特别是置身于大自然之中，地球上的自然奇观与自然灾害，比如火山、地震、龙卷风及海啸都深深地触动着我。当需要为自己的硕士以及后来的博士论文选题时，我毫不犹豫地选择了一个与大规模活动断层相关的研究项目，而该断层便出现在青藏高原的西部。我的任务是查明1000多公里长的喀喇昆仑断裂带的平均滑速率，从而确定大地震已经发生及可能发生的“脉冲周期”。这个特别的研究课题引起了我的兴趣，因为它需要在被誉为“世界屋脊”、平均海拔4500米的青藏高原开展野外调查。这个面积超100万平方公里的巨大而平坦的地区也被称为“世界的第三极”，因为这里包含了数量仅次于北极和南极的冰川以及淡水。同时，因为该高原是许多亚洲大河如恒河、雅鲁藏布江、印度河、长江、澜沧江（湄公河）、怒江（萨尔温江）和黄河的源头，为数百万计的人群提供着必要的淡水资源，这里也被称为“亚洲水塔”。

我非常喜爱物理学与地球物理学，但这两门完全是理论性学科。于是，在学习完这两门课程之后，我便抱着轻松的心态来到野外，接受一门全新的科学性学科——地质学培训，这样便可以对我如此挚爱的大自然母亲进行更加深入的了解。基于此，我在中国的青藏高原度过了一个半月的时光。那时，23岁的我刚刚开始攻读博士学位。我们的探险队拥有一批法国和中国科学家，而我则是队中最年轻的成员，也是唯一的女性。这是一次真正的冒险，因为那时——2002年青藏高原仍然远在天边，难以企及。由于几天之内都不会遇到加油站，所以有两辆卡车帮助我们运送设备、食品、帐篷及汽油，最初，我们在拉萨停留了几日，并适应了那里3700米的高海拔，同时品味了那里的文化，欣赏了美丽的风景，然后，我们便向藏西进发。最初，我们穿行在柏油路上，但随后道路渐渐变为土路——因为我们正在穿越一片只有牦牛、藏野驴、狼、熊、岩羊、藏羚羊等野生动物才能栖息的广袤土地。从西藏第二大城市日喀则向西行驶，随着海拔从4200米上升至4800米，风景也发生了变化，虽然这里绿化程度仍相对较高，有树木和农作物，也有许多小村庄伫立在海拔4000米上下的地方，但随后，开始变成有着短草和大部分盐湖的岩石沙漠，与背景中的喜马拉雅山及其白雪皑皑的山脉形成了美丽的对比。经过一周的驾驶，我们到达了喀喇昆仑断层的南端，这里有着金字塔形的神山——海拔6656米的冈仁波齐。这座山是亚洲三大河流的源头：雅鲁藏布江即布拉马普特拉河、印度河和萨特勒季河。在这里，我们花了几周的时间采集岩石样本，进行地形测量，并沿着断层绘制地图。

在后来的假期中，我离开西藏，去探索中国的其他地区，比如云南、广西、安徽等。在此过程中，我因为无法同司机或当地人沟通，开始变得沮丧。因此，当我一回到巴黎，便开始进行中文课程的学习，这样便可以在下次旅行中更好地交流！那时，我从未想过有一天会将中国称为家，更不用说用中文进行科学演讲，用中文在国家自然科学基金委员会（NFSC）的项目中答辩。不仅如此，我还嫁给一个亚洲男人，或许我的女儿也会在未来把中文当作母语！

在攻读博士及后期入职博士后期间，我有幸先后六次前往青藏高原，去采集那些有科学价值的样品，当然不是很多人认为的那种商业价值！这些样品将揭示许多奥秘，其中就包括喀喇昆仑断层相当快的平均滑动速率——约为5—10毫米/年，这将有助于重建青藏高原南部和西部的古气候。就像世界上大多数地方一样，最大的冰川推进发生在大约4万年前，而不是在2万年前的末次盛冰川。

移居中国

考虑到我的研究重点是青藏高原的活动断层及过往发生在那里的地震，于是，我在欧洲的玛丽·居里奖学金的支持下，在美国斯坦福大学完成了自己的博士后研究之后，便顺其自然地加入了位于北京的中国地质科学院地质研究所，其实我已经与地质所合作几年有余。在2010年的夏天，我仅带着一个行李箱，就这样搬到了北京。起初，我以为自己在这里的工作时间不会超过一到三年。然而，随着我在中国享受生活，在青藏高原，现在被称为高原东部的四川和云南等地区进行研究，并与研究所的中国同事进行合作，我发现我在中国的生活和工作不再索然无味。这个国家充满了活力，以惊人的速度不断发展，并走在技术进步的前沿。例如，微信、支付宝、淘宝以及外卖等服务应用程序让生活变得更加便捷，这使当出国旅行仍需要现金支付时，我很怀念这种方便。自我第一次访问中国以来，距今已有近20年，在此期间，中国取得的成就令世人瞩目。中国的学术环境极具活力和激发性，所以完全没必要羡慕西方，由于政府的慷慨资助，中国的研究机构正受益于最先进的设备与设施。

在北京工作伊始，我是地质所里唯一的外国人，现在也是。在日常生活中，我的首要任务便是掌握流利的中文。在女儿出生前的七年时间里，我每周都在一位私人教师那里上课。在一开始，我发现所有的同事都坚持只说中文，每次会议也都用中文进行，这让我十分烦恼。但回想起来，这却是最好且最快的学习方式！我是一个勤奋的人，即使在午休时间，我都在完成作业、写汉字。同时，我的同事会耐心地纠正我的错误，并回答我的问题，我对此十分感激。在工作方面，我在中国的前几个月主要是在新疆和四川进行实地考察，不仅开展了自己的研究，还让我了解到其他团队成员的项目，并亲眼见到了高原上其他主要的活动断层。此外，我还参加了一些全国性的会议，并与中国各地不同机构从事相关研究的同行会面。几年后，我开始与我在法国的前法国同事进行国际合作。从那时起，我们在四川和云南共同度过了许多野外时光，完成了许多互补性研究课题，并共同撰写了许多经同行评议后发表的出版物，甚至互派交换生。多亏了中国留学基金委，最近我的一位博士生才有机会在法国进行为期一年的学习。

事实上，早在2015年，我便开始培训和督促自己的中国学生，通过实地考察及室内实验来教授他们，同时带他们参加会议，并把他们介绍给同行。在此期间，我必须自己撰写申请以获得国家资助来支持我的学生，以及实地考察和实验室费用、出版费用、设备经费等。多年来，我成功获得了多项国家自然科学基金项目的资助，这其中就包括2020年“国家自然科学基金委重点国际合作基金项目”，支持了我与法国格勒诺布尔—阿尔卑斯和里昂两所大学进行持续而富有成效的合作。当然，如果得不到我的研究室主任李海兵所带领的研究团队的大力协助，这一切都不可能实现。我们之间的工作关系很融洽，并在各种任务上互相帮助。例如，他们帮助我用中文翻译我的资助申请并进行修改和润色，而我则帮助他们修改他们的英文论文和国际方面的工作。经过长期的练习及和同事间的训练，我成了那个能在国家自然科学基金委员会评审专家组面前用中文对话、回答问题的人，并为我的项目进行陈述。

我们的团队领导一直积极主动地去寻找资助机会并确保资金，向资深同行推荐我们这些年轻的科学家。他毫不犹豫地为我创造机会，让我能够与其他杰出的中国科学家们讨论我的工作及成就，并让我得到获奖提名。2020年，我获得了黄汲清青年地质科学技术奖，2021年，我在北京人民大会堂获颁中国政府友谊奖，这让我很惊讶。刘鹤副总理为我和其他17位获奖者颁发了精美的奖牌和证书，李克强总理发表致辞，并与我们合影。随后是参加国庆招待会，与会人员包括大使等数百名其他重要嘉宾。我非常荣幸、自豪和感激能获得这样一个享有盛誉的奖项。该奖是中国政府授予为中国经济社会发展作出重要贡献的外国专家的最高荣誉，这是我始料未及的。

中国的发展日新月异

我对中国的快速发展印象深刻，尤其是那些位于西部的偏远省份，其大小城市被高速铁路和高速公路连通。当然，这并非易事。例如，正在建设的成都至拉萨的川藏铁路是中国目前正在应对的一个真正的技术挑战。事实上，该偏远地区位于青藏高原东南部，毗邻喜马拉雅山东部的一些最高山峰，如7782米的南迦巴瓦峰，地形以高海拔和高起伏为特征，中国的三条河流金沙江（长江）、澜沧江（湄公河）和怒江（萨尔温江），在高原上切割出深深的峡谷。这样的地形要求铁路隧道和一些桥梁占96.4%，其中最长的将达到42公里！因此，为了安全防范，如此艰巨的工程项目，需要像我这样的野外地质学家进行区域地震灾害和断层活动性的研究。我从2012年开始对青藏高原东部活动断层开展研究，如鲜水河断裂带的研究在这样一个项目中是非常及时的，川藏铁路将穿越的鲜水河断裂带即便不是全世界，也是全中国活动性最强的断裂带之一，平均每30年多年就会发生一次7级大地震。政府要求我们沿着拟建设的铁路路线进行详细的实地研究，我们也得到了必要的资金支持。我很自豪地说，这种细致的研究使我和同事在川西康定地区发现了一条全新世活动断层，促使决策层微小地改变了铁路路线，以减少它将穿越的活动断层的数量和可能带来的灾害。但不幸的是，当该地区下一次大地震来袭时，这并不能避免破坏或生命损失，但它将降低风险，并为更好和更安全的建设实践提供了可能。

当我在四川映秀和北川瞻仰2008年汶川大地震遗址时，我被深深地感动了：为了让人们铭记这段历史，中国政府选择留下被摧毁的城镇。这是我第一次亲眼见识地震的威力。这真的会让你意识到，与大自然相比，人类是多么微不足道。我自己的研究确实有助于人们了解大地震是如何发生的，它们发生的频率以及下一次地震可能发生在哪里。2021年，当时青海省的一个偏远地区发生大地震时，我正好在中国，此地靠近黄河源头，海拔高度约4200米。由于该地区地势相对平坦，并被草原和沼泽覆盖，人口极为稀少，所以除玉树—西宁高速公路上的一座桥梁外，地震基本没有造成人员伤亡及其他基础设施损坏。我们的考察队在地震发生后的一天内到达，并沿着151公里长的地表破裂带开始了为期数周的震后实地调查。在地震后的几天里，我们每天经历多达6次余震。这也是我们为什么会睡在当地政府提供的帐篷里，而不是附近可能被地震破坏的酒店中。今年早些时候，青海又发生了一场强烈地震——6.9级门源地震，但发生在另一个主要活动断层——海原断层上，我们也是在第二天到达了这个偏远的山区——北祁连山地区。我们绘制并测量了地表破裂带，在地面上可以追踪27公里。幸运的是，此次地震没有造成人员伤亡，但兰州至乌鲁木齐高速铁路上的一条隧道和桥梁严重受损。

我将继续积极地研究青藏高原及邻区的活动断层，以降低地震风险，并帮助我们了解这些地区过去的气候是如何演变的，从而努力预测未来的气候变化。这不仅是另一个我非常关心的话题，也是一个中国越来越感兴趣的话题。为此，我将进行实地研究，与科学界和更广泛的人们分享自己的发现，同时教育学校的孩子们尊重和保护我们美丽的星球及这里的居民，并鼓励他们从事科学研究、教学，以培养未来的科学家及研究人士。最后，去试图提升当地居民的风险意识——一种对自己生活地区及未来一生中可能遭遇到的风险意识。我的母亲曾经和我一起去了青藏高原，实现了她的一个毕生梦想。当边境重新开放时，我也会让我的朋友和家人享受中国的文化和历史，并介绍他们到我最喜欢的旅游胜地。我也将继续留在北京，留在这个安全度和国际化程度都很高的城市中，并在这种环境中抚养我的女儿，以确保她充分意识到她欧洲和亚洲的双重文化背景。当她四岁时被问到来自哪里时，她自豪地回答：“中国！”我依然相信中国仍有很多东西可以提供。我想了解更多中国的语言和文化，继续享受中国人民的欢笑和幸福，期待看到中国接下来的成就！

My mother has always been fascinated by Tibet and, more broadly, by Asian culture and history. As a result, I was raised hearing these eastern Asian folktales throughout my childhood.

On the Tibetan Plateau

I’ve always been drawn to the outdoors, specifically nature, and our planet’s natural wonders and natural disasters such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. When it came to choose a topic for my Master’s and later, Ph.D. thesis, I did not hesitate for a moment and chose a research project on a large active fault in far western Tibet. My task was to ascertain the average slip rate of the ＞1,000-kilometer-long Karakorum fault and, consequently, how often large earthquakes have occurred and are likely to occur in the future. This particular research subject sparked my interest because it required fieldwork on the Tibetan Plateau, the “Roof of the World” with average elevation: 4,500 metres above sea level. This vast and flat plateau with more than one million kmis also referred to as the “third pole” due to the fact that it contains the most glaciers and thus freshwater, following the North and South poles. At the same time it is also referred to as “Asia’s water tower” because the plateau is the source of the continent’s largest rivers, e.g., Ganges, Brahmaputra, Indus, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, and Yellow River, providing additional essential freshwater to millions of people.

After studying physics and geophysics, which I truly enjoyed but were entirely theoretical, I was to be out in the field, receiving training in a completely new scientific discipline-geology, and learning about Mother Nature, my true passion. That is how I ended up spending a month and a half in China, on the Tibetan Plateau, when I was 23 years old and just starting my Ph.D. studies. We were a large group of French and Chinese scientists, and I was the expedition’s youngest member and sole female. It was a true adventure, as Tibet was still highly remote and hard to access at the time (2002). We had two trucks transporting our equipment, food supplies, tents, and petrol for the cars, as there would be no gas stations for several days. After a few days in Lhasa to acclimate to the high elevation of 3,700 metres, to enjoy the culture and beautiful scenery, we set out for the far west, initially on paved roads that quickly turned into dirt roads—passing through these vast lands where only wild animals like yak, Tibetan ass a.k.a. kiang, wolf, bear, blue sheep, gazelle, etc. roam freely. When driving west of Lhasa’s second-largest city, Xigaze, the landscape changes as you ascend to the plateau’s average elevation from 4,200 metres to 4,800 metres. While it is relatively green with trees and crops and has numerous small villages below 4,000 metres, it then transforms into a rock desert with short grass and mostly salty lakes, which contrasts beautifully with the Himalayas and its snowcapped mountains in the background. After a week of driving, we arrived at the southern end of the Karakorum fault, where the pyramid-shaped, sacred Mount Kailas -of 6,656 metres Kangrinboqe is located. This mountain is the source of three of Asia’s largest rivers: the Yarlung Zangbo or Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej. We spent several weeks collecting rock samples, performing topographic measurements, and mapping along the fault.

After being out in the field in Tibet and exploring a different part of China like Yunnan, Guanxi, Anhui, etc. for holidays afterward, I became frustrated with my inability to communicate with the drivers or the locals. As a result, as soon as I came back to Paris, I started taking simple Chinese lessons so that I could communicate a little bit more on my next trip! Never in a million years would I have thought that I would one day call China home, let alone be able to give scientific talks and defend NFSC projects in Chinese, marry an Asian man, or have my daughter speak Chinese as her first language!

During my Ph.D. and later post-doc, I was fortunate enough to travel to Tibet six times to collect valuable samples which are not of commercial value, as many people believe! These samples would reveal, among other things, that the quite fast average rate at which the Karakorum fault slips is ～5-10 millimetres per year, and that would help reconstruct the paleoclimate of southern and western Tibet. The Last Glacial Maximum a.k.a. LGM (20,000 years ago) was not the most extensive glacial advance in Tibet.

When I moved to China

Given that my research focused on active faults and past earthquakes on the Tibetan Plateau, it was only natural that I joined the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, with whom I had already collaborated for 8 years, after my Post-doc at Stanford University in the United States thanks to a European Marie Curie Fellowship. That is how, in the summer of 2010, I moved to Beijing with just one suitcase. At first, I assumed I would be here for no more than one to three years. However, as I continued to enjoy living in China, conducting research on the Tibetan Plateau now mostly in eastern Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan, etc., and collaborating with Chinese colleagues at my institute, my life and work in China have never been boring. I find that this country is brimming with vitality; it is constantly evolving at a lightspeed pace, at the cutting edge of technological advancement. For instance, service apps such as WeChat, Alipay, Taobao, and food delivery, to name a few, make life so much easier, and I miss this when traveling abroad, where cash is still required to purchase items. It’s truly remarkable what China has accomplished in the two decades since my first visit. China’s academic scene has nothing to envy from that of the west, as it is extremely dynamic and stimulating. Research institutions benefit from state-of-the-art facilities, courtesy of generous government funding.

I was the only foreigner at my institution when I first started working in Beijing, and I still am. My first priority in daily life was to become fluent in Chinese. I took weekly lessons from a private teacher for seven years until my daughter was born. At first, I found it annoying that all of my coworkers insisted on speaking only Chinese to me, that every meeting was held in Chinese. Looking back, this was the best and quickest way to learn! I was a hard worker who spent my lunch breaks doing homework and practising writing characters. My coworkers would patiently correct my errors and answer my questions, which I appreciate. In terms of work, I spent my first few months in China in the field, primarily in Xinjiang and Sichuan, not only to conduct my own research but also to learn about the other team members’ projects and to see firsthand the plateau’s other major active faults. I also attended a number of national conferences and met peers working on related topics in various institutions across China. I began international collaborations with my former French colleagues based in France a few years later. Since then, we have spent many joint field seasons in Sichuan and Yunnan on complementary research topics, as well as co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, and even had students exchange. Thanks to the China Scholarship Council, one of my Ph.D. students recently spent a year in France.

Indeed, in 2015, I began training and supervising my own Chinese students and teaching them in the field and in the lab, bringing them to conferences, and introducing them to peers. I had to write my own grant applications to get national funding to support my students, field and lab costs, publishing costs, equipment, and so on. Over the years, I’ve successfully obtained several NSFC grants, including the prestigious “International collaboration grant of NSFC” in 2020, to support my ongoing, fruitful collaboration with the university of Grenoble-Alpes and that of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the tremendous assistance of my research team, led by Li Haibing, our department’s director. We have a great working relationship and help each other with a variety of tasks. For example, they assist me in translating and organizing my grant applications in Chinese while I assist them with their English papers and international aspects of their work. After hours of practice and training with my colleagues, I was the one who presented and answered questions in Chinese in front of the committee of Chinese Professors to fend my project.

Our team leader has always been proactive in identifying funding opportunities, securing funding and promoting us, the younger scientists, among our senior peers. He has never hesitated to put my name forward and provide me with opportunities to discuss my work and accomplishments with other eminent Chinese scientists and nominate me for prizes and awards. In 2020, I was awarded the Huang Jiqing Youth Geological Science and Technology Award, and in 2021, I was honored to receive the Chinese Government Friendship Award at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. While Vice-Premier Liu He presented a beautiful medal and certificate to me and the other 17 awardees, China’s Premier Li Keqiang delivered the speech and sat down for a group photo with us. The National Day gala, which included hundreds of other important guests such as ambassadors, followed the ceremony. I am incredibly honored, proud, and grateful to be the recipient of such a prestigious award. The Friendship Award is the highest honor bestowed on foreign experts who have contributed to China’s social and economic development by the Chinese government. That was something I hadn’t anticipated.

马晓丽在位于四川省甘孜甘州的中国墨石公园景区实地考察

China’s fast development

I find it very impressive how fast China is developing, especially the remote western provinces that connect large and small cities with high-speed railways and highways. It is, for sure, no easy task to handle. For example, the ongoing construction of the Sichuan-Tibet railway between Chengdu and Lhasa is a real technical challenge that China is tackling now. Indeed, the topography of this remote region of southeastern Tibet is characterized by high elevation and high relief, dissected by three rivers in China: the Mekong (Lancang Jiang), Yangtze (Changjiang), and Salween (Nujiang), which incise deep gorges into the plateau, adjacent to some of the highest mountain peaks of the eastern Himalaya (Namche Barwa, 7,782 metres). Such topography requires the railway to be at 96.4% in tunnels and a few bridges, the longest of which will be 42 kilometres long! It is thus clear that for the sake of safety, such a Herculean engineering project requires field geologists like me to conduct research on regional earthquake hazards and faulting activity. My research which I began in 2012 on eastern Tibet and on the Xianshuihe fault, one of China’s, if not the world’s, most tectonically active faults, with one M7 earthquake every 30 years on average, is extremely timely in such a project. The government has asked us to conduct detailed field studies along the proposed railway route, and we have been given the necessary funding. I’m proud to say that such meticulous research enabled me and my colleagues to discover a new fault in the Kangding region of western Sichuan, prompting authorities to change the train route slightly to reduce the number of active faults it would cross. Unfortunately, this will not prevent destruction or loss of life when the region’s next large earthquake strikes, but it will reduce the risk and allow for better and safer construction practices.

马晓丽调查2021年青海省玛多地震造成的裂缝

I was deeply moved when I visited the site of the devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Yingxiu and Beichuan in Sichuan, where the Chinese government chose to leave the destroyed towns intact for people’s awareness. This was the first time I saw what an earthquake is capable of with my own eyes. It really makes you realize how insignificant we are in com-parison to Mother Nature. My own research does help people understand how large earthquakes behave, how frequently they occur and where the next one might strike. In 2021, I was “lucky” enough to be in China when a large earthquake struck a remote part of Qinghai (2021 Maduo earthquake, M7.4), near the Yellow River’s source, at ～4,200 metres of elevation. Except for one bridge on the Yushu-Xining highway, that relatively flat region is covered in grasslands and marshes and has an extremely sparse population, so no casualties or other infrastructure damage occurred. Our team arrived one day after the earthquake and began our post-earthquake field investigation for a few weeks along the 151 kilometreslong surface rupture. In the days following the earthquake, we experienced up to six aftershocks per day. That is why we slept in government-provided tents rather than nearby hotels, which the earthquake may have weakened. Another large earthquake—Menyuan earthquake with M6.9 struck earlier this year in Qinghai, but on a different major active fault—the Haiyuan fault, and we arrived the next day in this remote, this time mountainous, region of the southern Qilian Mountains. We mapped and measured the surface rupture, which could be followed for 27 kilometers on the ground. Fortunately, no one was killed, but one tunnel and bridge on the two-year-old high-speed railway line between Lanzhou and Urumqi were severely damaged.

I will continue to research active faults in and around Tibet actively, mitigate earthquake risk, and contribute to our understanding of how past climate evolved in those regions in order to work towards predicting future climate change, another topic near and dear to my heart and one that China is increasingly interested in. I will accomplish this by conducting field research, sharing my findings with the scientific community as well as broader audiences, teaching school children to respect our beautiful planet and its inhabitants and encourage them to pursue science studies, teaching, and training graduate students who will become tomorrow’s scientists, and finally, attempting to raise awareness among local populations about the risks they may face in their lifetime. My mother went to Tibet with me once, fulfilling one of her lifelong dreams. When the borders reopen, I will also allow friends and family to enjoy China and its culture and history and introduce them to my favorite tourist destinations. I will keep raising my daughter in this extremely safe and highly international environment, Beijing, and make sure she is fully aware of her dual cultural background of Europe and Asia. When asked where she is from at four years old, she proudly answers, “China!”. I still believe that China still has so much to offer. I want to learn more about the Chinese language and culture, continue to enjoy the laughter and happiness of the Chinese people, and look forward to seeing what China achieves next!