Partial melting of Earth’s crust and mantle occurs in a wide range of settings, e.g., within plate, and at divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries. Although some of the factors triggering partial melting and the mechanisms allowing the ascent of magma through the crust have been well studied in the past decades, the role of structural inheritance in triggering partial melting and creating preferential pathways for magma to rise through the crust and to the surface remains poorly understood.
Recent improvements and the development of new techniques in exploration geophysics, geochronology, numerical modelling, and the temporal and spatial resolution of data, make it now possible to better detect potential relationships both at regional and local scale. Examples of inheritance–magmatism interplay include but are not limited to fault-controlled mantle exhumation, partial melting at eroded anticlines, magmatic intrusions along fold axial cleavage, faults and shear zones, preexisting orogens controlling the formation of transform faults, triple junctions, radiating dyke swarms, Large Igneous Provinces, and core complexes.
These relationships may have profound implications for, e.g., the identification of natural resources, nature and origin of magma-rich/poor rifted margins, formation of seaward-dipping reflectors, morphology and seismicity of rifts and orogens, localization of transform faulting, formation of microcontinents, development of cratonic lithosphere, composition of anomalously thick crust (e.g., Iceland, Rio Grande–Walvis, Mozambique–Madagascar, Laxmi–Laccadive–Chagos, and South Tasman ridges), and plate and planetary tectonics (e.g., the supercontinent cycle).
We welcome contributions across the geosciences focusing on the interaction between structural inheritance and magmatism. Interdisciplinary studies combining various approaches, e.g., fieldwork, subsurface exploration, laboratory analysis, and/or modelling and fields, e.g., exploration for natural resources, geochemistry, geochronology, geodynamics, geophysics, mineralogy, petrology, seismic reflection, seismology, and structural geology, are particularly encouraged. The session aims at gathering scientists from various fields and with varied backgrounds to enhance discussion and multidisciplinary collaborations and identify potentially important causal relationships such as factors controlling partial melting, including the type and amount of magmatism.