Title: Subduction zone geodynamics
Description: Subduction is a major process that plays a first-order role in the dynamics of the Earth. The sinking of cold lithosphere into the mantle&nbsp;is thought by many authors to be the most important source of energy&nbsp;for plates driving forces. It also deeply modifies the thermal and&nbsp;&nbsp;chemical structure of the mantle, producing arc volcanism and is&nbsp;responsible for the release of most of the seismic energy on Earth.&nbsp;There has been considerable achievements done during the past decades&nbsp;regarding the complex interactions between the various processes&nbsp;acting in subduction zones. This volume contains a collection of&nbsp;contributions that were presented in June 2007 in Montpellier&nbsp;(France) during a conference that gave a state of the art panorama and&nbsp;discussed the perspectives about "Subduction Zone Geodynamics". The papers included in this special volume offer a unique&nbsp;multidisciplinary picture of the recent research on subduction zones&nbsp;geodynamics. They are organized into five main topics:&nbsp;Subduction zone geodynamics, Seismic tomography and anisotropy, Great&nbsp;subduction zone earthquakes, Seismogenic zone characterization,&nbsp;&nbsp;Continental and ridge subduction processes. Each of the 13 papers collected in the present volume is primarily concerned with one of&nbsp;these topics. However, it is important to highlight that papers always treat more&nbsp;than one topic so that all are related lighting on different aspects&nbsp;of the complex and fascinating subduction zones geodynamics.
Subjects: Subduction zones, Congresses, Geodynamics, Plate tectonics, Earthquakes, Mines and mineral resources, Applied Earth Sciences, Structural Geology, Geophysics/Geodesy, Geology, Earth sciences, Physical geography, Geography