Geodynamics

Our planet’s solid epidermis is mobile, with horizontal and vertical movements ranging from a few millimetres to tens of centimetres per year. These movements occur at the surface, at the boundaries of lithospheric plates or within a deformed plate. These lithospheric movements are also associated with convection in the Earth’s mantle, involving exchanges of matter and heat between the surface and the deep Earth, and controlling our planet’s composition and evolution.

The Geodynamics theme seeks to characterize and explain plate and mantle dynamics, and their relationships with surface processes, for example:

• Structure, dynamics and evolution of the lithosphere, from continental rift to ridge.
• Formation of super-continents and reorganization of plate boundaries.
• Characterization of subduction zones (see SubMap).
• Material transfers (water, sediments, chemical elements) between the deep Earth and outer envelopes.
• Relationship between long-term deformation (movement of tectonic plates and mantle) and short-term deformation (seismic cycle).
• Impact of geodynamics on land surfaces and biological migrations.

The issues addressed overlap in part with the laboratory’s Deformation, Hazards, Resources and Early Earth themes.