| Session Details | |
| Section | SE - Solid Earth Sciences |
| Session Title | Recent Advances in Understanding Mountain Building Processes: Methodology, Observations, Models and Implications |
| Main Convener | Prof. Chih-Tung Chen (National Central University, Taiwan) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Kazuaki Okamoto (Saitama University, Japan) Prof. Jon Lewis (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, United States) Dr. Hai Thanh Tran (Hanoi University of Mining and Geology, Viet Nam) Dr. Xi-Bin Tan (China Earthquake Administration, China) |
| Session Description | Orogenic belts offer insights into mountain building processes operating from the Earth’s surface to the base of the lithosphere under tectonic and climatic forcings. Mountain building processes at various timescales are responsible for the resources and geohazards concentrated both within active and ancient orogenic mountain systems throughout the Asia and Pacific regions. Facing the needs to deal with catastrophic events such as the Wenchuan and Gorkha mega-earthquakes, and the rising demands of mineral and energy resources, reevaluation of mountain building processes by updated knowledge on orogen architecture, kinematics, rheological evolution, and surface processes is essential. New studies in orogenic mountain belts can now be aided by advanced analytical capabilities in mineralogy/petrology, geochemistry, and geochronology/thermochronology, and by recent high-resolution topographic datasets, geophysical imaging and geodetic measurements, plus by improved physical and numerical simulations especially during the last decade. The ongoing research advances will progressively revolutionize our ideas on rock pressure-temperature-time history, tectonic wedge kinematics, rock exhumation, seismogenic faulting, fluid-rock interactions, mountain mass wasting, and tectonic-climate coupling, etc. With new methods, observations and insightful models, we expect improvements of our perceptions on the inner workings of plate tectonics and its imminent societal impacts. Contributions presenting recent documentations and hypotheses on all aspects of mountain building processes are welcome. |