Tectonics

Call for Papers for “Tethyan dynamics: from rifting to collision ”

Submission Open: 1 March 2019 
Submission Deadline: 1 March 2020 

Special Section Organizers:
Bo Wan, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 
Douwe J.J. van Hinsbergen, Utrecht University 
Stephane Guillot, Université Grenoble Alpes 
Marco Malusa, Università Milano Bicocca 
Ritske Huismans, University of Bergen 
Yener Eyuboglu, Karadeniz Technical University 

Tethyan ocean closure created nearly 15,000-km long suture zones on Earth from the southwest Europe to the southeast Asia. The ocean closure resulted in high mountains at continental margins, and deformed continental interiors several thousand kilometers inside, which further influenced the global climate and ocean environments. Subsequently, the Tethyan evolution has played a crucial role for the Earth system by strong interactions among layers in Earth’s ecosphere. The Tethyan evolution can be summarized by continental fragments rifting from Gondwana, drifting and collision towards components of Laurasia. Since the Paleozoic, such processes repeatedly opened new ocean basins from Gondwana and subducted old oceanic crust beneath Laurasia. Many studies have described the kinematics of such processes, but the dynamics controlling such unique phenomena is still highly debated. The special volume aims for a better understanding of whole-Tethys processes “Why the fragments rifted from Gondwana and kept colliding with Laurasia continuously?”, as well as reconstructions of the Tethys both in time (from Paleo- to Neo-Tethys evolution) and in space (e.g., Alps, Mediterranean to SE Asia). We invite contributions of broad interest across disciplines with topics including but not limited to, rifting dynamics, subduction dynamics, and collision dynamics in the Tethyan realm. Both large-scale review articles and original research articles are welcome.