The structure of mountain belts evolves in an overall convergent setting comprising contractional and extensional domains. Mountain belts and orogenic plateaus are a major focus for current research, uniting scientists with focus as diverse as mantle processes, chemical evolution of the continental crust, origin of regional magmatism and metamorphism, paleogeomorphology and paleotopography, basin and drainage pathway evolution, and climate.

This session incorporates research on processes associated with orogens and orogenic plateaus spanning five continents, and the Precambrian to the Holocene. Research challenges addressed in this session include i) the structure and composition of (overthickened) lithosphere, ii) rheological contrasts and the potential role of channel flow and escape tectonics in orogen and plateau development, iii) the influence of structural and lithological inheritance on orogenic architecture and style, iv) uplift and mechanisms for exhumation of the roots of mountain belts and orogenic plateaus, and v) feedback between tectonics, topography and climate. A great variety of tools and approaches are employed, including field/structural mapping, remote geophysics, geo-/thermochronology, stable isotope geochemistry, petrology/thermobarometry, and analogue and numerical modeling.