Mon. Apr 28, 2014 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM 315 (3F)

Convener:*Thorsten Becker(Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California), John Hernlund(Earth-Life Science Institute), Takashi Nakagawa(JAMSTEC/IFREE), Chair:Thorsten Becker(Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California)

Plate tectonics is moderately well described by the behavior of a cold thermal boundary layer in thermal convection. However, Earth's thermal evolution is co-determined by fractionation and the resulting complexities of a thermo-chemical system. The recent years have seen dramatic advances in ourability to quantitatively model the behavior of such a system, and there has also been a resurgencein the analysis of geological, geophysical, and geochemical constraints on plate tectonics over time. We invite contributions from across the disciplines that speak to the question on how and why platetectonics operates on terrestrial planets, including but not limited to: modeling studies of plate generation;convection studies including continental cycles; plate tectonic reconstruction analysis; geochemical reservoir evolution; stochastic and deterministic models of mantle structure; deep mantle phase transition dynamics;basal magma ocean dynamics; thermo-chemical pile dynamics; links between solid Earth and exosphere;continent formation and destruction; and long term volatile cycles.