Geodynamics

Summary

Geodynamics examines the forces and processes that govern the structure and evolution of Earth’s interior and its surface expression. Central to this field is the concept of plate tectonics, in which rigid lithospheric plates move atop a convecting mantle. Mantle convection, driven by heat escaping from Earth’s core and radioactive decay, produces upwellings at mid-ocean ridges and downwellings at subduction zones. In subduction settings, denser oceanic lithosphere sinks into the mantle, transporting water and chemically altered material that both lubricates slab descent and stimulates melting in the overlying mantle wedge. Melt rises to form volcanic arcs, while metasomatic fluids modify lithospheric composition. Variations in mineral-phase stability at depth, expressed by the depths of seismic discontinuities, control buoyancy contrasts that influence slab stagnation and plume ascent. Geodynamic interactions between mantle flow, plate motions, crustal rheology and surface processes (such as erosion and sedimentation) shape mountain belts, ocean basins and continental interiors over millions of years. Integrating geophysical observations, high-pressure experiments and numerical models enables a unified picture of Earth’s thermal and compositional evolution and helps to predict present and future crustal deformation.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent work has revealed that an ancient flat-slab subduction event dislodged a chemically distinctive mantle domain and transported it over 2 000 km beneath a modern mid-ocean ridge. Geochemical analyses show that trace-element signatures commonly attributed to subduction are preserved and later sampled by ridge magmatism, demonstrating that slab-induced mantle anomalies can be recycled and re-emerge far from their original location. Experimental and theoretical investigations of the post-spinel transition—the breakdown of ringwoodite to bridgmanite plus ferropericlase—have demonstrated that its Clapeyron slope varies nonlinearly with temperature. At higher temperatures the transition is nearly horizontal in pressure–temperature space, while at cooler temperatures it has a negative slope. This nonlinearity explains why some slabs penetrate into the lower mantle while others pond above the transition zone, influencing global mantle circulation patterns and the distribution of deep earthquakes. Ab initio calculations of subducted crustal phases at lower-mantle pressures have provided elastic-property predictions for calcium-ferrite-type minerals derived from oceanic basalt. These studies link silica phase transformations to mid-mantle scatterers detected by seismic tomography and suggest that the heterogeneous lower mantle owes much of its complexity to the presence of recycled oceanic crust.

Research from all publishers

Advances in full-waveform seismic tomography using spectral-element methods have produced a whole-mantle shear-velocity model with radial anisotropy. This high-resolution image distinguishes thermal and compositional fabrics throughout the mantle and reveals how flow-aligned minerals in both transition-zone and lower-mantle depths contribute to seismic anisotropy. Global multifrequency inversions of P, PP and diffracted P (Pdiff) wave traveltimes have yielded new isotropic P-velocity models that achieve unprecedented sampling of the lowermost mantle. These models challenge the conventional view of two discrete slow provinces (beneath Africa and the Pacific) and instead suggest a nearly continuous chain of low-velocity anomalies beneath the southern hemisphere, linked to large-scale mantle upwellings and paleosubduction imprints. Joint body-wave and normal-mode studies have confirmed a marked shift in the scale of mantle heterogeneity around 1 000 km depth. Above this boundary, short-wavelength anomalies dominate and are associated with subducted slabs and plume conduits, whereas below it the heterogeneity spectrum flattens, consistent with a viscosity increase or subtle phase change that modulates convective mixing.

Geodynamics publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in geodynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

• Plate tectonics: Theory describing the movement of rigid lithospheric plates over Earth’s asthenosphere. • Mantle convection: Slow, buoyancy-driven circulation of mantle rock that transports heat from the core to the surface. • Clapeyron slope: The pressure–temperature gradient of a mineral-phase boundary, influencing buoyancy and slab dynamics. • Post-spinel transition: High-pressure reaction of ringwoodite to bridgmanite plus ferropericlase, marking the upper–lower mantle boundary. • Seismic tomography: Imaging technique that uses the travel times and waveforms of seismic waves to infer three-dimensional structure. • Radial anisotropy: Variation of seismic wave speed with direction in the vertical plane, indicative of aligned minerals or flow fabric. • P-diff waves: Seismic waves that diffract along the core–mantle boundary, providing sensitivity to the lowermost mantle. • Flat-slab subduction: Tectonic process in which the subducting plate descends at a very shallow angle, affecting mantle flow and surface deformation.

References

  1. Ghost-arc geochemical anomaly at a spreading ridge caused by supersized flat subduction. Nature Communications (2023).
  2. Nonlinearity of the post-spinel transition and its expression in slabs and plumes worldwide. Nature Communications (2025).
  3. Velocity and density characteristics of subducted oceanic crust and the origin of lower-mantle heterogeneities. Nature Communications (2020).
  4. Whole-mantle radially anisotropic shear velocity structure from spectral-element waveform tomography. Geophysical Journal International (2014).
  5. Global mantle structure from multifrequency tomography using P, PP and P-diffracted waves. Geophysical Journal International (2019).
  6. Confirmation of a change in the global shear velocity pattern at around 1000 km depth. Geophysical Journal International (2017).

About these summaries

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