diff --git a/Mesh/meshMetric.cpp b/Mesh/meshMetric.cpp
index 46de0df7603f622c5aa78073077ca4ad504c8e7e..eb044c02a75fcdc2141330026a25e0d7489e3e0f 100644
--- a/Mesh/meshMetric.cpp
+++ b/Mesh/meshMetric.cpp
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ void meshMetric::computeHessian( v2t_cont adj){
 	double gr2 = result(2);
 	double gr3 = (_dim==2) ? 0.0:result(3); 
 	double norm = sqrt(gr1*gr1+gr2*gr2+gr3*gr3);
+	if (norm == 0.0 || _technique == meshMetric::HESSIAN) norm = 1.0;
 	grads[ver] = SVector3(gr1/norm,gr2/norm,gr3/norm);
       }
       else