His studies of terrestrial geology spanned the globe: he participated in missions to America, Greenland, Poland, Guyana, Mauritania, the Sahara and the Antarctic.
In 1960, he represented the French government on an American polar expedition to Antarctica.
Early in his career, his interest in the application of mathematics to his fields of study, especially that of planetology, led him to the observatory of Paris-Meudon.
He suggested and started applying geological science to planetary bodies other than the Earth as early as 1948, studying and publishing on the geomorphology and physics of the Moon, Mars, and other planets.
[3][4] He conducted scientific conferences in 20 foreign countries, taught at the Sorbonne, Université Laval in Quebec, and the California Institute of Technology, and published 390 scientific works, on geomorphology, oceanography, hydrology, glaciology, petrography, mineralogy, geography, paleontology, planetary geology, and history.