Quantitative plate kinematic reconstructions have classically been restricted to oceanic basins with continental deformation not being accounted for in a systematic and quantitative way. Advances in computing infrastructure, software and modelling tools available to the geoscience community now allow for a much tighter integration of observations of continental crust and lithosphere deformation across multiple magnitudes of scale with plate kinematic and, ultimately, geodynamic models to better understand the evolution of plate boundaries in space and time. This interdisciplinary session intends to bring together structural geologists, seismologists, paleomagnetists, plate tectonic and geodynamic modelers to exchange views and present ongoing work on how continental
deformation can be integrated quantitatively in regional to global plate kinematic models and assimilated into geodynamic models. The session aims to explore the spatio-temporal and depth-dependent complexity of deformation in the continental lithosphere, from plate boundary formation during extension,
through to accretion and collision of continental blocks and destruction of well-defined plate boundaries during orogenesis. We invite contributions dealing with:
- testing and validating plate kinematic models with field observations from compressional or extensional domains such as fold and thrust belts or rift basins,
- linking global or regional plate kinematic models to numerical models of lithosphere deformation,
- assimilating depth-dependent deformation of lithosphere into regional and/or global plate kinematic or geodynamic models.