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The authors consider the chronological relation of two groups of phenomena in the history of the Earth over the last 150 mln years. One of them is relatively short (a few million years) tectonic phases, or orogenic phases, identified by H.W. Stille in 1924 and characterized by an increase in compressive deformation in mobile belts of the Earth. Deformations that occur during such phases are quite explicable by collisional interactions of lithospheric plates. However, these interactions do not explain the synchronous occurrence of phases in different belts and on different continents. The other group is the frequency of magnetic reversals, i.e., changes such that the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged. Tectonic phases are more frequent in epochs of frequent geomagnetic reversals. During the last 24 mln years, when geomagnetic reversals were especially numerous, tectonic phases came one after another in short intervals. An emerging trend for them is the lagging of phase peaks by one to two million years relative to the most frequent magnetic reversals. The chronological relations identified show that tectonic phases are determined not only by geodynamic processes in the lithosphere but also by the action of energy pulses that occur in the Earth’s core and at the boundary of the core with the mantle, where the Earth’s magnetic field is generated. On the geological time scale, this interaction takes place quickly, which excludes energy pulse convection and prompts the search for other mechanisms of this transfer. It is possible that it takes place because the lithosphere is affected by alternating body forces that occur under a change in currents in the core, which is followed by changes in the mode of the Earth’s rotation and the adaptation to it of lithospheric masses.

Half a century ago, principles of the theory of lithosphere plate tectonics, or plate tectonics, were first formulated. Since then, the theory has become substantially more complicated and tectonic processes and phenomena have been identified that are not described by the theory. This relates to certain types of vertical movements, primarily to the newest uplifts that led to the formation of modern mountain systems. Comparison of geological processes (both those described by the theory of plate tectonics and those unexplained thus far) with data of the seismic tomography of the mantle has made it possible to outline a new tectonic model, according to which the source of observable tectonic manifestations is lateral flows of upper mantle matter, propagating from superplumes—flows of matter and energy rising from the mantle’s bottom. These lateral flows not only move lithospheric plates but also determine structural–substantial transformations of the lithosphere and the upper underlithospheric mantle, which lead to vertical movements and mounting building.