Continued progress in creating and distributing global data sets, coupled with the emergence of more capable computing tools and platforms has enabled researchers to build and explore increasingly refined global and regional kinematic and dynamic models for the Earth's history that address key questions on the mechanisms behind plate tectonics.

The session will be a forum to present new data and interpretations on plate kinematics (present and past). It will also be a forum to address the geodynamic questions that arise from a better understanding of plate kinematics, such as:

- Reconstructions of paleo-stress through the combination of kinematic and dynamic models in the past hundred million of years

- New forms of testing/validating/comparing kinematic observations in plate models on regional or global scale

- Kinematic and geodynamic consequences of the subduction of lithospheric heterogeneous structures such as ridges, large igneous provinces and and seamounts.

- Subduction dynamics and the relation of plate size vs. slab size vs. age through time.

- Changes in the dynamics of plate tectonics over timescales of 100's of Ma? Evidence for tectonic cyclicity other than the Wilson cycle? Implications for the processes initiating and controlling plate subduction?

- What do past kinematic data tell us about the forces linking plate and mantle processes during the past ~100 Ma? Is there evidence that these interactions have changed over this timescale?