[iris-bulk] AGU session on continental lithospheric foundering

[Craig Jones]

As the AGU abstract deadline approaches, we would like to encourage
submissions to our session on lithospheric foundering (including
delamination and "dripping") beneath continents.  This process has
become widely proposed as a means of driving uplift, "post-orogenic
collapse" and increasing the mean silica content of continents. Although
we are motiviated by ongoing experiments in the Sierra Nevada, we hope
to hear from other orogens where this process is being studied. (Note
this session differs from T34, which is primarily focused on detachment
of lithosphere in subduction zones).

T31:    Foundering Lithosphere: Observations and Implications, with a
Focus on the Sierra Nevada

Removal of mantle lithosphere has been implicated in a number of
continental processes, from the conversion of primary mafic magmas into
bulk andesitic crust to the creation of high elevations in some orogens
to the inversion from compressional to extensional tectonics. This
session will explore the processes of lithospheric foundering by
examining evidence from geophysical, geochemical, and geological studies
and constraints developed from geodynamic experimentation. One focus of
the session will be the study of the Sierra Nevada of California, which
is presently the focus of two major NSF projects considering the role of
lithospheric foundering over the past 10 My in the tectonic evolution of
the range. Among the questions that can be addressed are: What
observations can test the hypothesis that mantle lithosphere has been
removed? What constraints do we have on the physics of this process? How
common is lithospheric foundering? What precisely are the effects at the
Earth's surface, in terms of topography, deformation, and volcanism? The
intent of the session is to build on observations from recent or ongoing
foundering events to be able to evaluate the role of this process in the
more distant geologic past.

For your convenience, here is the address to abstract submissions: 
http://submissions3.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp

Thanks,

Craig Jones, Linda Elkins-Tanton and Steve Park