Tectonophysics

Tectonophysics, a branch of geophysics, is the study of the physical processes that underlie tectonic deformation. The field encompasses the spatial patterns of stress, strain, and differing rheologies in the lithosphere and asthenosphere of the Earth; and the relationships between these patterns and the observed patterns of deformation due to plate tectonics.

Overview

Tectonophysics is concerned with movements in the Earth's crust and deformations over scales from meters to thousands of kilometers.^[1] Examples of such processes include mountain building, the formation of sedimentary basins, postglacial rebound of regions such as Fennoscandia, plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes.^[2] This involves the measurement of a hierarchy of strains in rocks and plates as well as deformation rates; the study of laboratory analogues of natural systems; and the construction of models for the history of deformation.

History

Tectonophysics was defined as a field in 1954 when Mikhail Vladimirovich Gzovskii published three papers in the journal Izvestiya Akad. Nauk SSSR, Sireya Geofizicheskaya: "On the tasks and content of tectonophysics", "Tectonic stress fields", and "Modeling of tectonic stress fields". He defined the main goals of tectonophysical research to be study of the mechanisms of folding and faulting as well as large structural units of the Earth's crust. He later created the Laboratory of Tectonophysics at the Institute of Physics of the Earth, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow.^[3]

See also

• Geodynamics
• Palaeogeography
• Rock mechanics
• Seafloor spreading
• Structural geology
• Tectonophysics (journal)

Notes

1. Rebetsky 2009
2. Whitcomb 1979
3. Mikhailova et al. 2001

References

• Rebetsky, Yu. L. "Modern problems of tectonophysics". Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth. 45 (11): 933–937. Bibcode:2009IzPSE..45..933R. doi:10.1134/S1069351309110019.
• Mikhailova, A. V.; Nikonov, A. A.; Osokina, D. N.; Rebetsky, Yu. L.; Yakovlev, F. L. (2001). Translated from Fizika Zemli, No. 2, 2001, pp. 103–111. "Mikhail V. Gzovskii and Creation of Tectonophysics (On the 80th Anniversary of His Birth)" (PDF). Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth. 37 (2): 183—190.
• Whitcomb, James H. (1979). "Impact of technology on tectonophysics". Impact of technology on geophysics. National Academies. pp. 70–80.

External links

• American Geophysical Union Tectonophysics Section