Some 200 years ago, Sir James Hall experimented with layers of cloth in his efforts to explain rock folding, and thus initiated analogue structural modelling. Some 160 years later, numerical modelling of plate tectonic and mantle convection processes took off during the 'plate tectonic revolution'. Since most geological processes are too slow to observe and measure directly, the modelled experiment is still an exceptional tool in exploring the dynamics of both structural and tectonic processes. The two methods of modelling are now commonly applied to investigate tectonic processes, and both have their pros and cons. Numerical models have in general great flexibility in choosing geometries, boundary conditions, lithologies and rheologies, all of which are more constrained in analogue experiments. But the complexities of some numerical techniques may limit their user-friendliness and 3D setups are still more straightforward in analogue models.

We invite contributions of the two modelling methods of the four basic processes of global tectonics: continental break-up and ocean rifting; marine and continental transform faulting; subduction and the opening of back-arc basins; and the closure of oceans and continental collision, at all scales. Significant contributions to deciphering these aspects of tectonics have been published during the last 20 years, and it seems that a vigorous discussion of the findings of such models, and the comparison between the advantages of both modelling methods could re-illuminate the basic concepts of tectonics, minted some 40 years ago.

Invited presenters:
Greg Houseman - University of Leeds, UK
Regis Mourgues - Universite du Maine, France