Subduction drives plate tectonics and is our planet’s largest recycling system. It regulates mass exchange between Earth’s interior and exterior and has a central role in shaping the planetary surface. Despite progress in our understanding of subduction zones important questions remain regarding slab dynamics and the interactions with the overriding plate. Further progress requires a better understanding of the links between slab geometries and subducting-overriding plate interactions as constrained from geochemistry, seismology, and geodynamic modeling. Unusual slab morphologies and processes such as slab tearing, lithospheric delamination, STEP fault propagation and anomalous arc volcanism all highlight aspects of the overall subduction dynamics and the subducting-overriding plate memory in particular. These processes are key to understanding how subduction and plate tectonics operate. In this session we invite contributions from all disciplines including geodynamics, seismology, geochemistry and mineral physics in a common effort to advance the understanding of subduction processes and dynamics.

• S - Seismology
• T - Tectonophysics
• V - Volcanology, Geochemistry and Petrology