Must-read papers in tectonics and structural geology – Introduction

The “TS Must-read papers” activity can be described as a virtual paper-discussion forum. A total of 103 voters within the TS community nominated 381 “Must read” papers researching topics within tectonics and structural geology, and we, early-career scientists with diverse backgrounds, a.k.a. the TS Must-read papers team (see below), promote in different media the contributions that were the most voted to discuss them on a Reddit open forum that we moderate.

Results of the vote and list of “Must read” articles

46 papers were nominated at least 2 times.

6 authors were nominated at least three times without paper coincidence.

18 authors were nominated at least twice without paper coincidence.

We present below the list of the 48 papers selected. We selected (i) the 46 papers that received two or more votes, and (ii) two papers from the remaining pool on the basis of two criteria: first-authors mentioned at least three times for different papers, and authors’ diversity within the final list.

The list below orders the “Must read” papers by their publication year and assigns the date these contributions will be actively promoted for discussion on Reddit. However, you can make your comments on the discussion forum at your convenience! Check the links in blue to access the original article in their publication site, the discussion in Reddit, and related blogposts, updated as the activity progresses.

Hubbert and Rubey (1959)

Role of fluid pressure in mechanics of overthrust faulting: I. Mechanics of Fluid-Filled porous Solids and its application to overthrust faulting.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Dietz (1961)

Continent and ocean basin evolution by spreading of the sea floor.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Wilson (1965)

A new class of faults and their bearing on continental drift.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Wilson (1966)

Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?
Discussion forum and blog post.

Mckenzie and Parker (1967)

The North Pacific: an example of plate tectonics on a sphere.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Morgan (1968)

Rises, trenches, great faults and crustal blocks.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Dewey and Bird (1970)

Mountain belts and the new global tectonics.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Riba (1976)

Syntectonic unconformities of the Alto Cardener, Spanish Pyrenees: a genetic interpretation.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Sibson (1977)

Fault rocks and fault mechanisms.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Mckenzie (1978)

Some remarks on the development of sedimentary basins.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Brace and Kohlstedt (1980)

Limits on lithospheric stress imposed by laboratory experiments.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Ramsay (1980)

Shear zone geometry: A review.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Boyer and Elliott (1982)

Thrust systems.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Tapponnier et al. (1982)

Propagating extrusion tectonics in Asia: New insights from simple experiments with plasticine.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Davis et al. (1983)

Mechanics of fold‐and‐thrust belts and accretionary wedges.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Lister and Snoke (1984)

SC mylonites.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Armijo et al. (1986)

Quaternary extension in southern Tibet: Field observations and tectonic implications.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Platt (1986)

Dynamics of orogenic wedges and the uplift of high-pressure metamorphic rocks.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Dewey (1988)

Extension collapse of orogens.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Molnar and Lyon-Caen (1988)

Some simple physical aspects of the support, structure, and evolution of mountain belts.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Sylvester (1988)

Strike-slip faults.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Lister and Davis (1989)

The origin of metamorphic core complexes and detachment faults formed during Tertiary continental extension in the northern Colorado River region, USA.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Dahlen (1990)

Critical taper model of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges.
Discussion forum and blog post.

England and Molnar (1990)

Surface uplift, uplift of rocks, and exhumation of rocks.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Molnar and England (1990)

Late Cenozoic uplift of mountain ranges and global climate change: chicken or egg?
Discussion forum and blog post.

Buck (1991)

Modes of continental lithospheric extension.
Discussion forum and blog post.

Cowie and Scholz (1992)

Physical explanation for the displacement-length relationship of faults using a post-yield fracture mechanics model.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Fossen and Tikoff (1993)

The deformation matrix for simultaneous simple shearing, pure shearing and volume change, and its application to transpression-transtension tectonics.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Caine et al. (1996)

Fault zone and permeability structures.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

DeCelles and Gile (1996)

Foreland basin systems.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Cowie et al. (1998)

A healing–reloading feedback control on the growth rate of seismogenic faults.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Scholtz (1998)

Earthquakes and friction laws.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Brun (1999)

Narrow rifts versus wide rifts: inferences for the mechanics of rifting from laboratory experiments.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Yin and Harrison (2000)

Geologic evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Wortel and Spakman (2000)

Subduction and slab detachment in the Mediterranean-Carpathian region.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Cooke and Underwood (2001)

Fracture termination and step-over at bedding interfaces due to frictional slip and interface opening.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Cowie et al. (2005)

Spatio-temporal evolution of strain accumulation derived from multi-scale observations of Late Jurassic rifting in the northern North Sea: A critical test of models for lithospheric extension.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Cannat et al. (2006)

Modes of seafloor generation at a melt-poor ultraslow-spreading ridge.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Bond et al. (2007)

What do you think this is? ”Conceptual uncertainty” in geoscience interpretation.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Hudec and Jackson (2007)

Terra infirma: Understanding salt tectonics.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Bürgmann and Dresen (2008)

Rheology of the lower crust and upper mantle: Evidence from rock mechanics, geodesy, and field observations.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Mancktelow (2008)

Tectonic pressure: theoretical concepts and modelled examples.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Wang et al. (2012)

Deformation cycles of subduction earthquakes in a viscoelastic Earth.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Péron-Pinvidic et al. (2013)

Structural comparison of archetypal Atlantic rifted margins: A review of observations and concepts.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog will be posted here.

Jackson and Rotevatn (2013)

3D seismic analysis of the structure and evolution of a salt-influenced normal fault zone: a test of competing fault growth models.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Rowe and Griffith (2015)

Do faults preserve a record of seismic slip: A second opinion.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Fossen and Cavalcante (2017)

Shear zones – A review.
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

Rotevatn et al. (2019)

How do normal faults grow?
Discussion forum. An accompanying blog post will be posted here.

We will discuss these articles over a time span of more than 2 years. Each paper will be handled by a 3-persons sub-team during a 1-month cycle of: Week 1 – announcement; Week 2 and 3 – discussion; Week 4 – wrap-up and summary blog post. Papers will be promoted for discussion every 2 weeks, thereby overlapping the announcement and first week of discussion of a paper with the second week of discussion and summary of the previous one.

The discussion will serve as a base to write a blog post about each paper on the TS Blog page. The blog post will be organized in 5 main points: a short synopsis, key points, controversies, opening venues/fields, and mention of contributors to the discussion. The final output of the action will consist of a compilation of all EGU “TS Must-read papers” blog posts that will be permanently archived on a preprint server (EarthArXiv).

We think this activity is an exciting opportunity for members of the community to continue to engage and to make the first commonly discussed and published bibliographic compilation for our research community. By doing this, we also hope to cheer up the TS community in these complicated times. It is now time to join our journey through 70 years of Earth Science, starting from the oldest to the youngest paper! We hope you would like to join us in discussing the science we love through some of the foundational, seminal, and ground-breaking papers in our discipline. Join us on Reddit and Twitter to stay tuned!

The “TS Must-read papers” team (in alphabetical order): Adriana Guatame-García, Akinbobola Akintomide (from Jan 2021), Arnab Roy (from Nov 2021), Armin Dielforder (until Oct 2021), Benoît Petri, David Fernández-Blanco, Folarin Kolawole (until Dec 2020), Gianluca Frasca, Gino de Gelder, Marta Marchegiano, Pan Luo (until Jun 2020), Patricia Cadenas (until May 2021), Silvia Crosetto, Utsav Mannu.