Primary Convener:
Eva Golos, University of Wisconsin Madison

Convener:
Lars Hansen, University of Oxford
Carolyn Tewksbury-Christle, Fort Lewis College
Colleen Dalton, Brown University

Early Career Convener:
Hatsuki Yamauchi, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University

Chair:
Eva Golos, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lars Hansen, University of Oxford

The mechanical state of the lithosphere and asthenosphere is crucial to assessing the operation of mantle convection, the long-term evolution of tectonic plates and plate boundaries, and the mechanisms underlying natural hazards such as earthquakes and volcanism. Of particular interest is the time-dependent, “transient” response of rocks to stress beyond a simple Maxwell (elastic viscous) model. A time-dependent description of the rheology is necessary to explain observations and sheds light on Earth’s past and present thermodynamic state. We invite contributions from the observational geophysics, rock-physics, and geodynamics to evaluate recent progress on understanding Earth’s mechanics, encompassing both elastic and transient behavior. Topics of interest include: grain-scale deformation; elastic and attenuation/viscosity structure of the lithosphere and asthenosphere; the role of partial melt; constraints on plate tectonic history; and novel geophysical measurements that address Earth's dynamic behavior over a range of spatial, frequency, and temporal scales.

Index Terms
1207 Transient deformation
3225 Numerical approximations and analysis
5144 Wave attenuation
7218 Lithosphere
8120 Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle: general
8124 Earth's interior: composition and state
8162 Rheology: mantle

Cross-Listed:
T - Tectonophysics
MR - Mineral and Rock Physics
S - Seismology

Neighborhoods:
2. Earth Interior