Special Session at AGU: Lithospheric Tectonic Evolution and Shallow Responses Beneath East Asia Since Late Mesozoic

[Eric Sandvol]

Dear colleagues,

 

Please consider submitting an abstract before 5th August 2026 at 2359 EDT at visiting Lithospheric Tectonic Evolution and Shallow Responses Beneath East Asia Since Late Mesozoic (https://agu.confex.com/agu/agu26/prelim.cgi/Session/279511).

 

East Asia is Earth's premier natural laboratory for investigating complex continental dynamics, hosting the world's highest plateau, lowest basins, steepest gradients, thickest crust, and thinnest lithosphere. The Late Mesozoic multi-directional convergence created unprecedented lithospheric complexity, offering exceptional opportunities to test hypotheses on craton destruction, continental growth, and deep Earth-surface coupling. The region documents the most extensively studied case of craton destruction (North China Craton) and a dramatic topographic inversion from an "Eastern Plateau" to today's "West-High-East-Low" configuration. We invite international researchers across seismology, geodynamics, geochemistry, and paleoclimatology to integrate global comparative perspectives on orogenic processes, advance methodological innovations in lithospheric imaging and numerical simulation, and develop frameworks linking deep Earth processes to shallow system changes. Chinese newest deep exploration programs will remain open, encouraging international collaborative and comparative studies. We particularly welcome contributions utilizing these resources alongside global analogues-from Tibet to Mediterranean and Cordilleran zones-to advance understanding of continental evolution.

 

Primary Convener:

Shuwen Dong, Nanjing University

 

Conveners:

Andrew Zuza, University of Nevada Reno

Eric Sandvol, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Qi Zhou, Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

 

 

Eric Sandvol

Professor

Department of Earth Sciences

University of Buffalo