The meeting will take place from the afternoon of Sunday, 21 June 2026 (arrival, welcome drink, and dinner) to the morning of Friday, 26 June 2026 (breakfast and departure). The scientific activities will be held from Monday to Thursday, with recreational and cultural activities scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The programme will also feature a practical training session on modelling tools and an optional geological field excursion.
The scientific programme consists of keynote oral presentations and poster sessions. Oral presentations are by invitation only and last about 45 minutes, including 10 minutes for questions. All participants are invited to contribute to the poster sessions. Posters should be prepared in A0 portrait format. Please note that no poster printing facilities will be available on site.
| 14:00–21:00 | Arrival and check-in |
| 18:30–20:30 | Welcome drink and dinner |
| 7:00–10:00 | Breakfast |
| 8:30-8:45 | Introduction |
| 8:45-9:30 | Susanne Buiter: A discussion of rifted continental margins in a plate tectonic context |
| 9:30-10:15 | Oğuz Göğüş: Lithospheric dripping across tectonic regimes: From Earth’s orogens to Venusian tectonics |
| 10:15–10:45 | Coffee break |
| 10:45-11:30 | Denise Degen: Interpretable physics-based machine learning for geodynamic modeling |
| 11:30-12:30 | Poster mini-presentations 1 |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-14:45 | Anthony Jourdon: Coupling long-term geodynamics and dynamic rupture: Deformation of the lithosphere across scales |
| 14:45-15:30 | Sebastian Wolf: Quantifying the interaction between tectonic deformation and climate-driven surface processes using coupled geodynamic-landscape evolution models |
| 15:30-16:00 | Students-speakers meeting |
| 16:00-16:30 | Coffee break |
| 16:30-18:00 | Poster session 1 (posters displayed from Monday morning to Tuesday evening) |
| 18:00-18:30 | Plenary discussion |
| 18:30-20:30 | Dinner |
| 7:00–10:00 | Breakfast |
| 8:45-9:30 | Adina Pusok: Melt generation and transport from the mantle to the surface |
| 9:30-10:15 | Tobias Keller: Numerical modelling of multi-phase flows in magmatic systems (online) |
| 10:15–10:45 | Coffee break |
| 10:45-11:30 | Agnes Kiraly: Towards efficient modelling of rock texture related mechanical anisotropy in large-scale dynamic models |
| 11:30-12:30 | Poster mini-presentations 2 |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-14:45 | Arne Spang: Ductile instability, strain localization, and rupture propagation by thermal runaway |
| 14:45-15:30 | Christian Sippl: Processes in subducting slabs: How can seismology inform models? |
| 15:30-16:00 | Students-speakers meeting |
| 16:00-16:30 | Coffee break |
| 16:30-18:00 | Poster session 2 (posters displayed from Monday morning to Tuesday evening) |
| 18:00-18:30 | Plenary discussion |
| 18:30-20:30 | Dinner |
| More information about Wednesday activities | |
| 7:00–10:00 | Breakfast |
| 8:30-12:00 | Excursion to the Glassworks in Světlá nad Sázavou (led by Lucie Tajčmanová) |
| 8:30-17:00 | Geological field excursion (led by Pavlína Hasalová and Luc de Hoÿm de Marien) and visit to Kutná Hora (unguided tour) |
| 8:00-18:00 | Recreational activities (rowboats on Lake Seč, cycling, hiking, tennis tournament, bowling, swimming etc.) |
| Picnic-style lunch and snacks | |
| 16:00-18:00 | MAGEMin workshop (led by Boris Kaus) |
| 18:00-20:00 | Dinner |
| 19:00-20:30 | Geodynamic World Builder workshop (led by Menno Fraters, Michael Pons and Daniel Douglas) |
| 7:00–10:00 | Breakfast |
| 8:30-9:15 | Julian Lowman: Plate generation from mantle convection and feedback with the deep interior |
| 9:15-10:00 | Diogo Lourenço: Rocky planets as heat engines: Global tectonomagmatic regimes and planetary evolution |
| 10:00-10:45 | Poster mini-presentations 3 |
| 10:45-11:15 | Coffee break |
| 11:15-12:00 | Poster session 3 (posters displayed from Wednesday morning to Thursday evening) |
| 12:00-12:45 | Madeleine Kerr: Considering the effects of mineral phase transitions on mantle convection dynamics and heat flow in Venus |
| 12:45-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-14:45 | Martin Kihoulou: Remote-controlled tectonics: How does Io drive "rifting" and "subduction" on Europa? |
| 14:45-15:30 | Christophe Sotin: Laboratory experiments on the creep behavior of ices: Implications for the interior dynamics of icy worlds |
| 15:30-16:00 | Students-speakers meeting |
| 16:00-16:30 | Coffee break |
| 16:30-18:00 | Poster session 3 (posters displayed from Wednesday morning to Thursday evening) |
| 18:00-18:30 | Plenary discussion |
| 18:30-24:00 | Dinner & Farewell party |
| 7:00-10:00 | Breakfast, check-out and departure |
Rifted plate margins form as continental stretching evolves into continental breakup. Since Wegener’s depiction of an abrupt boundary between ocean and continent, we have come to appreciate the intrinsic dynamics of continental rifting as part of the interactions between Earth’s mantle and lithosphere. This is reflected in rifted margin processes and architectures that share common features, but also seem to point to a certain level of uniqueness among rift systems.
In this overview presentation, i aim to examine curiosity-driven questions regarding rifting, such as: Which factors and processes determine the localisation of rifting in a Wilson Cycle perspective, where rifts open at or near former sites of ocean closure? What is the role of mantle plumes? How can active ocean spreading centres jump, leading to the formation of microcontinents? Why do some rifts fail?
Annotation: In this contribution we illustrate the benefits of interpretable AI-assisted surrogate models to characterize the variability of geodynamic processes. To demonstrate the opportunities and challenges across multiple applications, we present the approach for examples from the field of mantle convection and lithospheric dynamics.
This presentation explores the dynamics of viscous lithospheric dripping and its profound impact on surface topography and crustal deformation. Drawing on thermo-mechanical modeling across diverse settings, we will examine how these gravitational instabilities trigger rapid topographic uplift and crustal flow in active orogens like the Central Andes and the Anatolian Plateau. We will also review the mechanisms behind these drips, including eclogitization in magmatic arcs, and outline their diagnostic thermal and structural signatures. Finally, the talk will extend these geodynamic concepts beyond Earth, highlighting how similar drip mechanisms may drive crustal evolution and topographic features on Venus.
Tectonic deformation plays a crucial role in shaping Earth's surface. Strain localization leads to the formation of shear zones at depth and faults at the surface, accommodating a significant portion of plate displacement within plate boundaries. Over millions of years, deformation can be considered as a spatially and temporally continuous process of visco-plastic strain localization. At shorter timescales, strain localization involves the alternation of continuous visco-elastic deformation and discontinuous, almost instantaneous elasto-plastic deformation events rapidly releasing strain energy: earthquakes. Linking long-term plate boundary formation and short-term earthquake mechanics is a challenging active field of research. In this presentation I will provide an overview of concepts, methods and advances in linking long-term geodynamics and short-term earthquake dynamics.
Magmatic systems in the Earth's mantle and crust exert important controls on planetary differentiation and long-term evolution, crust formation tied to tectonic regimes, and both hazards and resources associated with volcanism. These systems range from melt-poor partially molten rock, to mush bodies at intermediate melt fractions, and lenses of melt-rich, eruptible magma suspensions. Previous process-based models tended to represent magmatic systems as either porous flows (melt fraction < 20 %) or suspension flows (melt fraction > 60 %). A lack of theoretical basis to represent mush flows at intermediate phase fractions has thus far hindered investigations into the dynamics of cumulate layers during magma ocean solidification as well as crustal mush bodies mediating magma ascent and petrogenesis in diverse tectonic settings. My contribution addresses these gaps in theoretical understanding and modelling capacity by presenting a comprehensive theory of magmatic multi-phase flows across all phase fractions at the system scale, rooted in mixture theory.
Among the many observed differences between the surfaces of Earth and Venus, the apparent lack of present-day plate tectonics as well as the abundance of volcano-tectonic features called coronae on Venus are among the most stark. These two observations may be connected. The surface expression of both large scale mantle upwellings (plumes from the core-mantle boundary) and downwellings as well as smaller scale upwellings and downwellings (which manifest as coronae) can be understood within the framework of a terrestrial mantle undergoing a complex array of mineral phase transitions beneath a wholly connected lithosphere. The mineral phase transition from wadsleyite to majorite and ferropericlase (WMF) at ~600 km depth in Venus is relevant for planetary mantles with potential temperatures greater than 1700 K. This talk will discuss the role that the WMF transition may play in explaining the complex surface expression of plumes on Venus in the present-day as well as discuss the role that changing mineral phase transitions play in enhancing heat flow within stagnant lid planets.
The young and smooth surface of icy moon Europa exhibits rifting- and subduction-like geological features, most likely formed during alternating periods of global expansion and contraction of Europa’s ice shell. These volumetric changes are triggered by temporal variations of Europa’s orbital eccentricity, governed by Io’s thermo-orbital evolution. Investigation of Europa’s dilation bands might therefore provide insight not only into Europa’s interior, but also into Io’s orbital evolution, heat transfer and volcanism.
In this talk, I will introduce the concept of mechanical (viscous) anisotropy and its link to crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO). I will review the range of approaches used to study CPO evolution and viscous anisotropy across scales, and highlight recent advances in modeling approaches. I will present the new CPO2Hill method for deriving anisotropic viscous parameters from CPO data and discuss the new research avenues this approach enables.
In this talk, I will examine how rocky planets function as heat engines, with internal heat driving mantle convection, tectonics, and magmatism. I will explore how the coupling among these processes leads to distinct global tectonomagmatic regimes that govern the evolution of Earth and other rocky planets and shape their present-day states.
Efforts to understand the generation of plate-like surface behaviour from a vigorously convecting mantle have included studies focused on both investigating the feedback between the plates and the deep mantle, and the ability of the mantle to generate plates, regardless of their influence on the planet's interior. As computational power has increased, and spherical 3D models have become commonplace, the problem of investigating the control parameters affecting plate generation first necessitates determining a way to identify the contiguous surface segments that may comprise distinct plates. Confirmation that plates have indeed been generated then requires verifying that each candidate plate's motion on the spherical surface is equivalent to rotation about an associated Euler pole. Plate generation is profoundly impacted by mantle viscosity structure, which includes a strong temperature-dependence that results in feedback between the lowermost mantle and the surface. Accordingly, LLSVPs and the formation of plates may be intertwined, such that the surface motion impacts the distribution of the LLSVPs but the properties of the provinces may affect the mantle's overall viscosity structure and therefore plate formation itself.
Magmatism plays a key role in the operation of plate tectonics, yet the details of magma generation in the mantle and transport to the surface remain unclear. In this talk, I will give a brief introduction to the growing evidence that melt is more widely distributed in the asthenosphere-lithosphere system, which questions our classical models of mid-ocean ridges and the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary. Then, I will talk about recent progress in understanding how melts may be extracted across the ductile–brittle lithosphere to the surface. Magma transport changes from porous flow in the hot, ductile mantle to fluid-filled fractures, known as dikes and sills, in the cold, brittle crust. Accurate representation of these processes in geodynamic models is crucial for understanding lithospheric deformation and planetary dynamics, as magma transports heat and alters lithospheric stresses.
This contribution will look at a range of processes involving subducting slabs - including slab seismicity, water transport and dehydration, slab deformation - and attempt to summarize the constraints that seismological observations can (and can not) provide for understanding them.
Deformation of ice has been studied in laboratory since the pioneering work of Glen et al. (1955). These experiments were carried out to better understand the deformation of terrestrial glaciers. More recent experiments (e.g. Goldsby & Kohlstedt (1997), McCarthy & Cooper, 2016)) were carried out to better understand the dynamics of icy worlds. Merging these different data sets is important to define the deformation laws relevant to processes such as subsolidus convection and tidal dissipation which play a critical role in shaping the geological evolution of icy worlds. Chemical evolution models suggest that clathrate hydrates may form. Their influence on interior processes and global evolution is reviewed. Among these icy worlds, the Galilean icy moons and Titan will be explored by the upcoming space missions JUICE, Europa Clipper, and Dragonfly, which will provide key measurements to constrain the models.
Ductile deformation is usually associated with slow and uniform deformation such as mantle convection. Yet, it is also sensitive to temperature and strain rate and therefore prone to the development of instabilities which can result in strain localization and faster deformation. Examples of ductile localization include mylonites, slow-slip events and deep earthquakes. The latter are detected in depths of up to 700 km and exhibit slip velocities in the range of 10^−3 to 10^1 m s^−1. In this talk, I will show thermomechanical models of thermal runaway, a mechanism which can result in highly localized ductile deformation and rupture propagation.
Topography on Earth results from the couplings and feedbacks that exist between tectonic deformation and climate-fueled surface processes. In this coupled system, fluvial and glacial erosion are not merely a decoration on top, but have the potential to modify and even fully counteract tectonic deformation. This raises the question, how different tectonic and erosional settings are expressed on Earth. In this talk, I will provide an overview of how the interaction between tectonic deformation and surface processes can be quantified with the help of coupled geodynamic-landscape evolution models, with a focus on mountain belts on Earth.
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