Deep-Earth processes such as slab stagnation, folding and avalanching at the mantle transition zone, slab tearing and break-off in the upper mantle, and mantle upwellings and downwellings can influence surface deformation and topography, basin subsidence and uplift, magmatism, sedimentation and drainage evolution. Distinguishing these signals from those produced by crustal and lithospheric processes, climate, and surface dynamics remains a major challenge.
We invite contributions integrating geological records, geophysical observations, geochemistry, petrology, and numerical or analogue modelling to investigate the surface expression of deep mantle and slab dynamics. Particular emphasis is placed on distinguishing deep-Earth forcing from crustal, lithospheric, and climatic controls, and on identifying diagnostic observations that link processes at depth to the evolution of Earth’s surface.