The 4th Annual Center for Global Tectonics International Academic Conference “Onset of Evolution of Plate Tectonics” was held at CUG Wuhan, June 5th, 2021. Academician Zhai Mingguo, Yang Jingsui, Li Xianhua, Zhao Guochun, Xiao Wenjiao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Center for Global Tectonics Timothy Kusky, researcher Wan Yusheng, Chen Ling, Peng Pai, Ross Mitchell, and Prof. Zhang Shihong, Prof. Wu Chunming, Prof. Wang Xiaolei, and more than 100 people participated in the conference online or offline.

The conference was opened by the President of CUG Wang Yanxin with a formal opening speech. Wang Yanxin introduced the founding history and significance of the Center for Global Tectonics and encouraged attendees to conduct active discussions on frontier issues in tectonics, and make suggestions for strengthening the international influence of CGT and CUG Wuhan.

Timothy Kusky, Director of CGT, reported the basic situation, construction progress, phased results and future plans of CGT. Afterwards, 8 scholars gave keynote reports on hot topics such as plate tectonics, tectonic style evolution, plutonic processes, paleo-plate reconstruction, and Phanerozoic orogenic belts. Participants conducted intense exchanges and discussions.

Center of Global Tectonics was jointly built in 2014, by the School of Earth Sciences, the State Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources, and the Three Gorges Reservoir Geological Hazard Research Center of the Ministry of Education. It is one of the important research bases of CUG (Wuhan) 1. Mainly dedicated to frontier scientific research in the field of earth sciences and resources. Research directions include the Precambrian tectonics, evolution of the Phanerozoic orogenic belt, deep earth processes and geodynamics.