The Earth’s climate system interacts with our planet's interior in many ways and on timescales that range from decades to the age of the Earth. Viscous flow in the mantle in response to internal and external loading deforms the Earth’s surface and causes changes in surface heat flux, Earth’s rotation axis and plate configuration. This change in the solid Earth boundary condition affects our reconstruction and understanding of the paleoclimate record in multiple ways.

Topographic changes alter the sea level record and therefore influence our interpretation of ice volume changes through time. Ice sheets are also directly affected by uplift or subsidence, plate motions and true polar wander as well as changes in the geothermal heat flux. Oceanic and atmospheric gateways that limit the redistribution of energy are opened and closed by topographic changes that can be of passive (away from plate boundaries) or active tectonic nature. Biogeochemical cycles on the Earth’s surface are influenced by the exposure and submergence of continental shelves, epicontinental seas and wetlands. Together with changes of volatile fluxes into and out of the Earth’s interior through subduction, melting and volcanism, these cycles shape the atmospheric composition, climate state and habitability of our planet. Volatiles in the mantle also affect its rheology and therefore convective behavior, which potentially leads to feedbacks in the ingassing – outgassing cycle. 

In this highly interdisciplinary session we invite contributions of observations, mechanisms, and modeling that focus on the interplay between solid Earth dynamics and the Earth’s past, present and future climate.

The invited speaker in this session is Irina Rogozhina (MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences).