Feedbacks Between Internal and External Earth Dynamics

Countless continuously interacting processes determine the functioning and evolution of the Earth. Even geodynamic and climate changes, which have been classically studied independently because they pertain to different Earth “spheres”, are linked by mutual cause–effect relationships that recent research has just started to recognize and quantify. Modeling, be it analog or numerical, is a trump card in this research for it allows rigorous integrations and interpretations of multiple observations that report on processes with different characteristic spatial and temporal scales and occurring at the Earth's surface or deep within its interior. In this chapter, I illustrate some of the main challenges of the study of the feedbacks between internal and external Earth dynamics and its relevance for the Earth Sciences as well as for facing and mitigating ongoing extreme global natural changes.