It is becoming clear that Wilson Cycle processes including rifting, drifting, inversion, and orogenesis are more complex than standard models suggest. In this second session of two, we explore new understandings of Wilson Cycle processes from margin inversion, through subduction initiation and progression, to orogenesis. In subduction zones and orogens observations and modelling showcase the significance of inherited geological structures, lithospheric rheology, time-dependence, surface processes, magmatism, obliquity, and geometry in processes of inversion, subduction initiation, and orogenesis. However, our understanding of the role and interaction of these factors remains far from complete. Unexpected observations, such as extensive subsidence and sedimentation during rift-basin inversion (e.g., in the Pannonian basin), or thermal imprinting from continental rifting affecting subsequent orogenesis (e.g., in the Pyrenees) challenge conventional models and emphasize the need for further work on the convergent part of the Wilson Cycle.
This session will bring together new observations, models, and ideas to help understand the complex factors influencing margin inversion, subduction initiation, and orogenesis during the Wilson Cycle. Works investigating time-dependence, inheritance, plate kinematics, strain localisation, magmatism, obliquity, interior plate deformation, driving forces, sedimentation, surface processes, lithospheric/crustal structure, and the interaction/feedback between processes controlling the Wilson Cycle are therefore welcomed to this session.
Contributions from any geoscience discipline, including geophysics, seismology, geochemistry, petrology, plate kinematics, tectonics, sedimentology, field and structural geology, numerical and analogue modelling, or thermo/geochronology etc., are sought. We particularly encourage cross-disciplinarity, innovative studies spanning different spatio-temporal scales, and thought-provoking ideas that challenge conventions from any and all researchers. We especially welcome contributions from student researchers.