Twenty years of subduction zone science: Subduction top to bottom 2 (ST2B-2)

Abstract

No other plate-tectonic setting has attracted such diverse, multidisciplinary research as convergent margins. Understanding the dynamics of subduction is particularly important for realistic assessment of associated hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. A number of recent initiatives have been successful in building communities not only to investigate subduction processes, but also to convey knowledge about subduction zone processes to other scientists, students, postdocs, and the broader public. These efforts must include synthesizing and simplifying subduction-zone science for classroom presentations and to help prepare the public for subductionrelated disasters. Tremendous advances over the past 20 years or so have been made in subduction zone science, with increasingly multidisciplinary efforts producing some of the greatest insights. We have initiated a publication effort in the GSA journal Geosphere, with a Themed Issue “Subduction Top to Bottom 2” (or “ST2B-2”) aimed at showcasing the recent advances, following up on the conceptually similar Subduction Top to Bottom published in 1996 as an American Geophysical Union Geophysical Monograph. The ST2B-2 Geosphere Themed Issue is accumulating papers and is open to ALL wishing to contribute to this effort—we anticipate accepting manuscripts through all of 2018 and possibly beyond.