The goal of this session is to reconcile short-time/small-scale and long-time/large-scale observations and models allowing to assess the rheological properties of the lithosphere defining its response to (and role in) geodynamic processes such as subduction, collision, rifting or mantle-lithosphere interactions. Despite the remarkable advances in experimental rock-mechanics, the implications of rock-mechanics data for large temporal and spatial scale tectonic processes are still not straightforward, since the latter are strongly controlled by local and regional conditions such as lithology and rheological stratification of the lithosphere, its thermal structure, fluid content, tectonic heritage, metamorphic reactions and deformation rates. This is no better demonstrated by the abundance of the proposed rheological yield stress envelopes and their sometimes questioned match to the inferences from geological-scale observations such as the estimates of the equivalent elastic thickness of the lithosphere. We therefore invite the researchers from different domains (rock mechanics, geodynamic and small-scale thermo-mechanical modelling, flexural studies, structural geology, geodesy and geophysics …) to share their views on the ways forward to improved our knowledge of the long-term rheology and mechanical behavior of the lithosphere.

Confirmed invited speakers:
Shun-Ichiro KARATO (Yale University)
Anthony R. LOWRY (Utah State University)
Stefan SCHMALHOLZ (University of Lausanne)
Stephan V. SOBOLEV (GFZ - Potsdam)