Lithosphere tectonics and mantle dynamics
Conveners: Russ Pysklywec1, Claire Currie2, Erkan Gün1
1University of Toronto, Emails: russ@es.utoronto.ca, erkan.gun@mail.utoronto.ca
2University of Alberta, claire.currie@ualberta.ca
Session Description
Earth’s outermost layers—the lithosphere and mantle— are continuously in complex interactions that yield a wide range of tectonic behaviours from large-scale plate motions to intraplate deformation or local plate boundary tectonics. Subduction and continental collision zones and related processes such as magmatism and fluid transport; vertical tectonics— ice sheet loading or lithospheric drips; and mantle flow and anisotropy as a result of convection or plate motions are some examples for the lithosphere-mantle dynamics. Although these complex processes have been studied with a variety of tools—geophysical and geological observations, numerical and analog experiments—on different spatial and time scales, there are still more to explore. In this cross-disciplinary session, we welcome contributions broadly from fields of research that explore the nature and dynamics of the lithosphere and mantle, that can help advance our understanding of the Earth’s intriguing internal and surface tectonic processes.