Components linking the evolution of the solid , fluid and living Earths

I. Summary Geography and geomorphology are not constant. Continents and oceans are continually rearranging and evolving in response to plate motions and internal plate deformation, thereby establishing dynamic boundary conditions that affect global ocean/atmosphere circulation, the connectedness of biological communities, the spatial and temporal distribution of biogeochemically important mass fluxes in and out of sedimentary reservoirs, and the distribution of mass and heat in and out of the mantle. Thus, understanding the evolution of any Earth system requires that the rearrangement of Earth’s surface be well studied and well constrained. Any knowledge management system that aims to integrate geoscience data on a large-scale must include paleogeography as a key component. Many of the grand challenge problems involving the Earth system – including paleoclimate change, biological responses to environmental perturbations, the dynamics of plate tectonics and the deep interior, reversals of the geomagnetic field, ocean chemistry and sea level change – all rely on plate tectonic and/or paleogeographic frameworks. Paleogeography is therefore an indispensable component of Earth systems analysis. Here, we describe the critical science that is dependent on paleogeography, the current state of cyberinfrastructure applied to the topic, and propose a path for the meaningful integration of paleogeography into EarthCube.