It is becoming clear that Wilson Cycle processes including rifting, drifting, inversion, and orogenesis are more complex than standard models suggest. In this session, we explore new understandings of Wilson Cycle processes, including the onset of extensional reactivation/rifting, breakup, ocean drifting, margin inversion, subduction initiation, and orogenesis. In rifted margins, oceans, subduction zones, and orogens, observations and models showcase the significance of inherited geological structures, lithospheric rheology, time-dependence, surface processes, magmatism, obliquity, and geometry in processes of rifting, drifting, and extensional reactivation. However, our understanding of the role and interaction of these factors remains far from complete. Unexpected observations such as continental material far offshore (e.g., at the Rio Grande Rise), wide-magmatic rifted margins (e.g., the Laxmi Basin), extensive subsidence and sedimentation during rift-basin inversion (e.g., in the Pannonian basin), and thermal imprinting from continental rifting affecting subsequent orogenesis (e.g., in the Pyrenees) continue to challenge conventional models and exemplify the need for further work on Wilson Cycle processes.
This session will bring together new observations, models, and ideas to help understand the complex factors influencing extensional reactivation, rifting, and drifting 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 but not limited to geophysics, marine geosciences, seismology, ocean drilling, 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, especially including students.
Solicited authors:
Ingo Grevemeyer,Laura Gómez de la Peña