Global Tectonics and Earthquake Activity in the Light of Mantle-Wide Convection

An investigation on traveltime residuals of PcP- and ScS-waves already carried out at the end of the ۵۰s revealed irregularities in the shape of the core-mantle boundary (CMS). The "bumps" of the core were interpreted in a dynamical way by the effect of rising and descending convection currents. Based on the same method but by applying the advantages of modern computer-tomography, various research groups have confirmed the irregular shape in recent years. At the same time, more details of the CMB have become known. On the basis of latest findings, a model of the structure and dynamics of the CMB has been developed. It provides an unexpected and surprisingly clear insight into the steering processes of thermal mantle convection and the driving mechanisms of global tectonics and earthquake activity. It seems that geotectonic processes, past and present, would be better understood by abandoning the phenomenological concept of "plate tectonics" and instead revealing a causative view by introducing "convection tectonics" as a unifying conceptional framework. Against this background, global earthquake activity is discussed and intra-continental earthquake activity thereby explained