Long-term controls on eustatic and epeirogenic motions by mantle convection

Abstract

Computational geodynamics is leading to the synthesis of plate tectonics and mantle convection into a unified dynamic model. Coupled models of plates and thermal convection quantitatively show both eustatic and epeirogenic controls on long-term uplift and subsidence of Earth's surface from regional to global scales. Eustasy and epeirogeny can no longer be viewed as mutually exclusive hypotheses explaining continental stratigraphy-both arise with nearly equivalent amplitudes, but with complex phase offsets, by the same system of global convection. Dynamic models assist in the interpretation of the stratigraphic record, which has long been known to show that continents undergo both eustatic and epeirogenic motions.