Interregional geological maps hold important information for geodynamic models. Here, we use such maps to visualize major conformable and unconformable contacts at interregional scales and at the level of geologic series from the Upper Jurassic onward across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. We extract hiatus information from these paleogeological maps, which we plot in a paleogeographical reference frame to link the maps to the plate and plume modes of mantle convection. We assume that interregional patterns of hiatus surfaces are proxy records of continent-scale mantle-induced vertical motion of the lithosphere. We find significant differences in the distribution of hiatus across and between continents at the timescale of geologic series, that is ten to a few tens of millions of years (Myrs). This is smaller than the mantle transit time, which, as the timescale of convection, is about 100–200 Myrs. Our results imply that different timescales for convection and topography in convective support must be an integral component of time-dependent geodynamic Earth models, consistent with the presence of a weaker upper mantle relative to the lower mantle. Additional geological constraints together with interregional geological maps at the resolution of stages (1–2 Myrs), are needed to assist in future geodynamic interpretations of interregional geologic hiatus.

Previous geodetic and teleseismic observations of the 2021 7.4 Maduo earthquake imply surprising but difficult‐to‐constrain complexity, including rupture across multiple fault segments and supershear rupture. Here, we present an integrated analysis of multi‐fault 3D dynamic rupture models, high‐resolution optical correlation analysis, and joint optical‐InSAR slip inversion. Our preferred model, validated by the teleseismic multi‐peak moment rate release, includes unilateral eastward double‐onset supershear speeds and cascading rupture dynamically triggering two adjacent fault branches. We propose that pronounced along‐strike variation in fracture energy, complex fault geometries, and multi‐scale variable prestress drives this event's complex rupture dynamics. We illustrate how supershear transition has signatures in modeled and observed off‐fault deformation. Our study opens new avenues to combine observations and models to better understand complex earthquake dynamics, including local and potentially repeating supershear episodes across immature faults or under heterogeneous stress and strength conditions, which are potentially not unusual.

Histories of large-scale horizontal and vertical lithosphere motion hold important information on mantle convection. Here, we compare continent-scale hiatus maps as a proxy for mantle flow induced dynamic topography and plate motion variations in the Atlantic and Indo-Australian realms since the Upper Jurassic, finding they frequently correlate, except when plate boundary forces may play a significant role. This correlation agrees with descriptions of asthenosphere flow beneath tectonic plates in terms of Poiseuille/Couette flow, as it explicitly relates plate motion changes, induced by evolving basal shear forces, to non-isostatic vertical motion of the lithosphere. Our analysis reveals a timescale, on the order of a geological series, between the occurrence of continent-scale hiatus and plate motion changes. This is consistent with the presence of a weak upper mantle. It also shows a spatial scale for interregional hiatus, on the order of 2000–3000 km in diameter, which can be linked by fluid dynamic analysis to active upper mantle flow regions. Our results suggest future studies should pursue large-scale horizontal and vertical lithosphere motion in combination, to track the expressions of past mantle flow. Such studies would provide powerful constraints for adjoint-based geodynamic inverse models of past mantle convection.

Plate motion changes provide powerful constrains on plate tectonic forces. North America is ideal to explore these forces. We use recently published high‐temporal resolution plate reconstructions of North America, which reveal a velocity slow‐down at 17 Ma, roughly coeval with the eruption of the Yellowstone plume, together with a stratigraphic analysis of hiatus surfaces across the continent, which provides proxy information for paleotopography. Using a simple Couette/Poiseuille flow models we estimate asthenosphere flow beneath North America and its impact on Neogene plate motion. We find that North America's Neogene plate motion change can be explained by Poiseuille flow in the asthenosphere generated upon the arrival of the Yellowstone plume and that the flow length‐scale matches the extent of hiatus surfaces. While plume driven upper mantle flow constitutes a geodynamically viable model to explain North America's Neogene plate motion change it provides an intrinsic link between vertical and horizontal plate motions.

In traditional modeling approaches, earthquakes are often depicted as displacement discontinuities across zero‐thickness surfaces embedded within a linear elastodynamic continuum. This simplification, however, overlooks the intricate nature of natural fault zones and may fail to capture key physical phenomena integral to fault processes. Here, we propose a diffuse interface description for dynamic earthquake rupture modeling to address these limitations and gain deeper insight into fault zones' multifaceted volumetric failure patterns, mechanics, and seismicity. Our model leverages a steady‐state phase‐field, implying time‐independent fault zone geometry, which is defined by the contours of a signed distance function relative to a virtual fault plane. Our approach extends the classical stress glut method, adept at approximating fault‐jump conditions through inelastic alterations to stress components. We remove the sharp discontinuities typically introduced by the stress glut approach via our spatially smooth, mesh‐independent fault representation while maintaining the method's inherent logical simplicity within the well‐established spectral element method framework. We verify our approach using 2D numerical experiments in an open‐source spectral element implementation, examining both a kinematically driven Kostrov‐like crack and spontaneous dynamic rupture in diffuse fault zones. The capabilities of our methodology are showcased through mesh‐independent planar and curved fault zone geometries. Moreover, we highlight that our phase‐field‐based diffuse rupture dynamics models contain fundamental variations within the fault zone. Dynamic stresses intertwined with a volumetrically applied friction law give rise to oblique plastic shear and fault reactivation, markedly impacting rupture front dynamics and seismic wave radiation. Our results encourage future applications of phase‐field‐based earthquake modeling.