Dr. Guido Gianni is a geologist, a graduate of the National University of San Juan (UNSJ), a professor at the same institution and a researcher at Conicet (National Council for Scientific and Technical Research). Together with a colleague, also Dr. Cesar Navarrete, a member of the National University of Patagonia, they conducted an investigation regarding a volcanic province called Chuywe. The Scientific article It was published by the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

Chuyue is a volcanic province of more than 90,000 square kilometers that stretches from southern Peru to Patagonia. The peculiarity of the geological phenomenon was that it has been in operation for more than 40 million years, which means a long time compared to other provinces that have been active for only five million years. Likewise, the acidic composition of the geological profile constitutes another reason why it is a highly researched topic at the international level.

In this sense, the discovery that Gianni and Navarrete made about Choiwe was such that they published their research in the journal Nature Communications. Nature originated in the UK and was first published in 1869. Since then, due to its history and trajectory, it has become a prestigious organisation.

In other words, for a scientist, having an article published by him via Nature Communications signifies an academic and professional achievement.

Screenshot of the first part of the article. Image: Nature Communications screenshot.

Gianni said Hoareb daily He had to go through a long academic journey to achieve what is new now. At this point, he commented that he had started studying at UNSJ, and before completing his thesis, he had become passionate about tectonics, the branch that studies soil deformation. At this point, after graduating as a geologist and doing his last work on the Tromin volcano, he moved to Buenos Aires to pursue his Ph.D. through a fellowship.

“We have to appreciate what our country and public education offer us, and in other places you have to pay a fortune to get a graduate degree,” he said.

Interest in soil deformation has led to a series of studies on the topic. So much so that he investigated the origin of the Andes mountain range and was able to discover that, contrary to what was believed, its appearance occurred in different stages. In other words, the world hangs, it first appeared in the region of Patagonia, where the Andes mountains go down, and then in the rest of the continent.

Gianni, for example, says he considers research in the Andes to be more worthy of a related discovery

Regarding Choiwe’s study, the geologist commented that work on conducting the research began during the pandemic. Thus, they had to investigate from their homes without having the possibility to go out into the field, where geologists conduct their experimental research. “Quarantine has caused disasters in many areas of life, and in science even more than that,” said the geologist.

In this framework, they were able to continue an investigation that deals, specifically, with the context in which Choiwe developed. About 10 years ago, famous geologists and geologists hypothesized Gianni says that the environment that gave birth to Choiwe is very similar to the current environment.

“At present, South America moves westward every year with what your fingernail grows in a year: two years. That is, the South American tectonic plate excretes the Nazca Plate, which produces a large number of seismic motions. He thought something similar was happening at the time,” Gianni explained.

However, the novelty that explains such scientific hype due to Gianni and Navarretti’s research is that the origin would have been different. What started this phenomenon is the breaking of tectonic plates which are older than the Nazca Plate and which have nothing to do with the Nazca Plate. This cutting generates a large amount of magmatic activity.

The San Juan geologist said that after they came to that conclusion and wrote the paper, they sent their research to an editor. “The process for publishing in a scientific journal is more or less the same, the editor sends your study to your other colleagues, who send you suggestions to correct some errors,” he said.

At this point, Gianni says that once the journal accepts it as research of current or long-term interest, it goes through another internal editing process. Once approved, the article is published in an issue of the journal. In this case, nothing more and nothing less than nature.

Finally, the geologist asserts that nothing he did at the academic and scientific level could have been achieved without having the opportunity to study in public education and to do science with state funding. Gianni concluded: “I dream of a country where public education and the science budget are not a debate, where there are agreements about where we should invest, because science brings us benefits in the short and long term.”