Tectonophysics 1983–1986: An overview

Exciting developments in concepts, technology, and analyses have marked the last four years of research in tectonophysics. This introduction to the Tectonophysics section of the 1983–1986 IUGG Quadrennial Report serves as a sketch of some of these developments. My observations are drawn from, and are largely restricted to, the ten review articles that follow; selected or comprehensive reading of the reviews is recommended for the specialist. Most of the topics have been reviewed in previous IUGG reports, although not always in each one. For example rheology of the lithosphere, lithospheric stress and deformation, and mantle convection have all been reviewed in the previous two reports (1979, 1983) whereas plate motions have not been reviewed in this series since 1979 and the thermal state of the lithosphere since 1975. Other reviews substitute for subjects covered previously; the review on accretionary prisms, for example, substitutes for continental passive margins reviewed last time. Two areas of renewed or growing importance in tectonophysics are represented by the reviews on mineral and melt physics and on the role of pore fluids in tectonic processes.