On December 11, 2025, the Dynamic Planet Earth seminar series, in collaboration with the Geology Section of the Faculty of Science, Charles University, will host two prominent scientists much involved in novel ways to model geodynamic processes, and both recently focused on continental rift systems. Sascha Brune is a professor at the Potsdam University in Germany and the head of Geodynamic Modelling section at the GFZ- Helmholz Centre for Geosciences. Rob Moucha is associate professor of Geodynamics at Syracuse University, NY, United States and currently a Fulbright Fellow hosted in Prague by the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Science, Charles University.
Continental rifts evolve through tightly linked deep and surface processes, including deformation, magmatism, erosion, and sedimentation. Rob and Sascha have both employed, with their students and co-workers, numerical modelling approaches to study similar aspects of continental rifting, such as the influence of mantle dynamics, lithosphere fabric, variations in its rheological properties, or, more recently, also links to climatic processes, erosion and sedimentation. They will share with us, in two separate talks, their experience and views resulting from development and application of numerical modelling tools in studying rifts, addressing examples from East African Rift as well as the European Cenozoic rift system. We believe that both talks will be of great interest not only to our colleagues studying rift systems, such as the Eger Rift in Bohemia or the modern Ethiopian rifts, but overall to our broad geoscience community.
Sascha Brune:
Process Interactions in Continental Rifts and Orogens: Sediments, Magma, Resources, CO2
To investigate the interactions between deep and surface processes in continental rifting, I will present a modelling framework that couples the geodynamic code ASPECT with the landscape-evolution model FastScape. Using this framework, I will showcase how process interactions shape the evolution of continental rifts and their sedimentary architecture. This talk will further explore conditions that generate georesources such as clastic lead-zinc deposits and natural hydrogen. Finally, I will share preliminary results on mobilisation, ascent and release of CO2 in lithospheric melts, with applications to the Cheb Basin and the East African Rift.
Rob Moucha:
Coupling climate with geodynamics: Lake level loading in extensional systems, with examples from the East African Rift
Continental rifts represent dynamic systems where climate-driven changes in lake levels and surface processes can influence tectonic and magmatic evolution. The East African Rift System exemplifies these processes, hosting deep lakes that experience dramatic base level changes with rates exceeding those of marine systems by an order of magnitude. These changes in the hydroclimate are paced by Milankovitch cycles through their influence on regional atmospheric circulation. Using geodynamic modeling, I will demonstrate how climate-driven changes in hydrologic loading control fault behavior, mantle melt generation, magmatic flux, and feedbacks between these processes on timescales of 0.1 to 1 Myr.
