About this Research Topic
Deformation at the margins of plates often initiates near, and is modulated by, pre-existing deformation features within the lithosphere - a key concept called structural and rheological inheritance. The effects of inheritance on the style and distribution of deformation are seen across outcrop to plate-boundary scales and reflect differences in structural geometry, frictional properties, and rheology within the lithosphere thought to be ‘inherited’ from past deformation. However, what mechanisms favor the exploitation and reactivation of inherited structure and rheology, and how they evolve and interact during progressive deformation, remain poorly understood.
This edited series will compile the latest developments in observing and modelling the mechanics of structural inheritance across the outcrop to plate-boundary scales. By doing so, we will bring together research from across a range of disciplines, including field geology, laboratory geomechanics, geophysical imaging, and active tectonics, as well as analytical, analogue and numerical modelling. These fields often develop in isolation, and by integrating them into a single Research Topic we aim to build a compilation of studies that outline the current state-of-the-art in their respective fields, and which outline areas of consensus and contradiction in the different research communities’ understanding of structural inheritance. Particular areas of recent advances include: (1) the development of 3-dimensional numerical models of lithosphere-scale deformation that can incorporate mechanical heterogeneity at the fault scale, and (2) a new understanding of the first-order rheological structure of the lithosphere.
We welcome papers that present new observations or models of structural inheritance along plate boundaries, and which provide insights into its underlying mechanics. In particular, we welcome papers encompassing a wide variety of research approaches, including (but not limited to): field observations, geophysical imaging, active tectonics, volcanology, and analytical, numerical, analog, and other forms of experimental modelling.
This edited series will compile the latest developments in observing and modelling the mechanics of structural inheritance across the outcrop to plate-boundary scales. By doing so, we will bring together research from across a range of disciplines, including field geology, laboratory geomechanics, geophysical imaging, and active tectonics, as well as analytical, analogue and numerical modelling. These fields often develop in isolation, and by integrating them into a single Research Topic we aim to build a compilation of studies that outline the current state-of-the-art in their respective fields, and which outline areas of consensus and contradiction in the different research communities’ understanding of structural inheritance. Particular areas of recent advances include: (1) the development of 3-dimensional numerical models of lithosphere-scale deformation that can incorporate mechanical heterogeneity at the fault scale, and (2) a new understanding of the first-order rheological structure of the lithosphere.
We welcome papers that present new observations or models of structural inheritance along plate boundaries, and which provide insights into its underlying mechanics. In particular, we welcome papers encompassing a wide variety of research approaches, including (but not limited to): field observations, geophysical imaging, active tectonics, volcanology, and analytical, numerical, analog, and other forms of experimental modelling.
Keywords: structural inheritance, tectonic inheritance, continental rifts, subduction zones, transform boundaries
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
