The subduction plate interface is Earth's most dynamic plate boundary. It hosts the planet's largest earthquakes and tsunamis, drives global crustal recycling, and governs global volatile budgets through CO2 and H2O fluxes between the surface and deep mantle. Deciphering its physical, mechanical, and chemical processes is essential for mitigating geohazards and understanding Earth's geological evolution.
A decade after the conclusion of a multi-disciplinary initiative, namely the European ITN ZIP (Zooming In between Plates), the subduction community has experienced ten years of rapid observational, technological and methodological advances. High-density geodetic and seismic networks, advanced marine geophysics, high-pressure rock deformation experiments, high-precision isotopic geochronology, 3D and 4D seismo-thermo-mechanical numerical models, as well as seismotectonic analogue models have fundamentally reshaped how we view the boundary between converging plates.
Despite past advancements, several key questions remain: how do transient rheologies interact to control megathrust earthquake nucleation, rupture propagation, and post-seismic relaxation? What governs the multi-scale spatial and temporal transitions from creep to seismic slip? How does mechanical mixing and stacking of tectonic slivers within the subduction channel alter mass and fluid fluxes from the shallow seismogenic zone down to the sub-arc mantle wedge?
Marking 10 years since the conclusion of the ZIP network, this session aims to review a decade of progress, to assess open questions, and to identify new directions in subduction interface research. We invite contributions from a broad, international pool of geoscientists from various disciplines.