Session programme

Dynamic processes shape the Earth and other planets throughout their history. Processes and lifetimes of magma oceans establish the initial conditions on the development of rocky planets and their early atmospheres. The dynamics of the mantle, the composition and mineral physics shape the present-day observable structure of the Earth's mantle and planetary bodies visible through seismic observations.
This session aims to provide a multidisciplinary view on the processes and structures of the Earth and planets. We welcome contributions that address the structure, dynamics, composition and evolution of their mantle, and their interactions with the outer layers, on temporal scales ranging from the present day to billions of years, and on spatial scales ranging from microscopic mineralogical samples, kilometer-size seismic structures to global planetary models.

Dynamic processes shape the Earth and other planets throughout their history. Processes and lifetimes of magma oceans establish the initial conditions on the development of rocky planets and their early atmospheres. The dynamics of the mantle, the composition and mineral physics shape the present-day observable structure of the Earth's mantle and planetary bodies visible through seismic observations.
This session aims to provide a multidisciplinary view on the processes and structures of the Earth and planets. We welcome contributions that address the structure, dynamics, composition and evolution of their mantle, and their interactions with the outer layers, on temporal scales ranging from the present day to billions of years, and on spatial scales ranging from microscopic mineralogical samples, kilometer-size seismic structures to global planetary models.

Mantle upwellings are an important component of the Earth’s convective system that can cause volcanism and anomalies in surface topography. Upwellings can rise from thermal boundary layers as hot “mantle plumes”. Alternatively, they can be the response to upper-mantle convective flow, subduction, or rifting. Clearly, different mechanisms sustain mantle upwellings of various temperature, vigour and composition, causing characteristic signals that can potentially be imaged using geophysical data, as well as expressed in the geochemistry and petrology of related magmatism.

This session invites contributions that focus on mantle upwellings from geophysics, geochemistry, and modelling perspectives. Our aim is to bring together constraints from multiple disciplines to understand the origin and dynamics of mantle upwellings, as well as their potential to trigger mantle melting, create volcanism, generate ore deposits, and build dynamic topography.

Many mantle structures have recently been observed by seismologists including the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB), a possible transition near ~1000 km depth, small scale heterogeneities in the transition zone and in the lowermost mantle (ULVZ, D"), plumes, stagnating slabs, mantle anisotropy... However their origin is still unclear and geodynamical modelling can help propose plausible scenarios. Furthermore, geodynamic models and tomographic images often investigate different physical parameters, and propose views of the mantle at separate scales. Combining information from both fields is therefore necessary to understand and link mantle processes across scales. We encourage every contribution that can feed the dialogue between seismologists and geodynamicists.

Sollicited speakers: Harriet C.P Lau (Harvard University), Manuele Faccenda (University of Padova)

Seismic tomography is a powerful tool for imaging the Earth’s interior and inferring its structure, composition, dynamics and evolution. Over the last decades, our images have sharpened, thanks to the growth of global and dense regional networks (on land and in the oceans), the extraction of new observables, advances in modelling techniques and increased computational power. We are now not only resolving unprecedented details on local and regional scales, but also moving towards whole-Earth tomography, including the inner core.

We welcome contributions on methods and applications of seismic tomography from the crust to the core and at scales from local to regional to global, including studies of new observables, developments in forward modelling and inversion techniques, innovative approaches to uncertainty quantification, and seismological and interdisciplinary efforts aimed at obtaining new insights into Earth's dynamics and evolution. While we welcome all studies aimed at constraining Earth structure, we particularly invite contributions that utilise passive sources.

The nature of Earth’s lithospheric mantle is largely constrained from the petrological and geochemical studies of xenoliths. They are complemented by studies of orogenic peridotites and ophiolites, which show the space relationships among various mantle rock kinds, missing in xenoliths. Mantle xenoliths from cratonic regions are distinctly different from those occurring in younger non-cratonic areas. Percolation of melts and fluids through the lithospheric mantle significantly modifies its petrological and geochemical features, which is recorded in mantle xenoliths brought to the surface by oceanic and continental volcanism. Basalts and other mantle-derived magmas provide us another opportunity to study the chemical and physical properties the mantle. These various kinds of information, when assembled together and coupled with experiments and geophysical data, enable the understanding of upper mantle dynamics.
This session’s research focus lies on mineralogical, petrological and geochemical studies of mantle xenoliths, orogenic and ophiolitic peridotites and other mantle derived rocks. We strongly encourage the contributions on petrology and geochemistry of mantle xenoliths and other mantle rocks, experimental studies, the examples and models of mantle processes and its evolution in space and time.