<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Easy@AGU: Special session DI02 on Seismic anisotropy and mantle dynamics<br><br>Do you sometimes feel that there are too many emails in your Inbox? Too<br>many interesting special session announcements to read? Well, here's<br>your EASY button for this year's Fall AGU:<br><br>Dear friends and colleagues:<br><br>Please join us for what we hope will be a lively discussion of the<br>cutting edge of seismic anisotropy imaging, modeling, and<br>interpretation for mantle dynamics. We aim to bring together<br>seismologists, mineral physicists, geodynamicists, and EM researchers<br>to report and discuss what observations of anisotropy from the<br>lithosphere to the core mean for questions such as those about the<br>variability of global plate motions, the nature of continental boundary<br>layer dynamics, the origin and role of the asthenosphere, effective<br>mantle creep rheologies, micro-mechanical deformation mechanisms, and<br>deep Earth compositional heterogeneity. <br><br>We have a terrific cast of invited speakers <br><br>David Abt, Brown University <br>James Gaherty, Lamont, Columbia University<br>Hans-Rudolf Wenk, University of California at Berkeley<br>Sergei Lebedev, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies<br><br>and are very much looking forward to receiving your contribution. <br><br>The detailed session description for DI02 is given below and at <br><br><a href="http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/index.php/Program/SessionSearch/?show=detail&sessid=78">http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/index.php/Program/SessionSearch/?show=detail&sessid=78</a><br><br><br>Cheers<br><br>Mark Panning<br>Thorsten Becker<br><br>(This year's AGU Fall meeting is from December 15-19, 2008, in San<br>Francisco. The abstract deadline is September 10, 2008. Please contact<br>either of us should you have any questions. Your results may vary.)<br><br><br>DI02: Seismic Anisotropy and Mantle Dynamics - Observations and Modeling<br><br>Seismically anisotropic structure from the uppermost mantle to the core<br>provides one of the best potential constraints for linking large-scale<br>observations to geodynamic flow modeling through microscopic mineral<br>physics experiments and theory. Recent years have seen detailed models<br>of azimuthal and radial anisotropy, for example, which have been<br>interpreted for plate and subduction dynamics. However, numerous issues<br>remain, some decades old, including: the detailed depth distribution of<br>anisotropic anomaly power throughout the upper mantle, the links with<br>electrical and rheological anisotropy, the origin and length-scale of<br>lowermost mantle anisotropy, the role of composition, volatiles,<br>temperature and pressure in anisotropic texture development, the<br>partitioning of frozen-in versus convection-generated anomalies, and the<br>resolving power of current seismological datasets. In this session, we<br>invite contributions from seismology, geodynamics, electro-magnetic and<br>xenolith studies, rock mechanics and mineral physics to explore the<br>frontiers of observations and modeling of mantle anisotropy. In<br>particular, studies that explicitly examine the connections between<br>observations of anisotropy and the dynamic processes in the mantle are<br>strongly encouraged. We wish to identify current challenges in<br>discussion (e.g. are we modeling or data limited?), and jointly<br>formulate strategies for the next years to turn seismic anisotropy into<br>a truly quantitative constraint on mantle dynamics. <br><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>