Statistics – Computation
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p31a1239h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P31A-1239
Statistics
Computation
[5430] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Interiors
Scientific paper
The motion of tectonic plates at the Earth’s surface, earthquakes, most forms of volcanism, the growth and evolution of continents, and the volatile fluxes that govern the composition and evolution of the oceans and atmosphere are all controlled by the process of solid-state thermal convection in the Earth’s rocky mantle, with perhaps a minor contribution from convection in the iron core. Similar processes govern the evolution of other planetary objects such as Mars, Venus, Titan, and Europa, all of which might conceivably shed light on the origin and evolution of life on Earth. Modeling and understanding this complicated dynamical system is one of the true “grand challenges” of Earth and planetary science. In the past three decades much progress towards understanding the dynamics of mantle convection has been made, with the increasing aid of computational modeling. Numerical sophistication has evolved significantly, and a small number of independent codes have been successfully employed. Computational power continues to increase dramatically, and with it the ability to resolve increasingly finer fluid mechanical structures. Yet, the perhaps most often cited limitation in numerical modeling based publications is still the limitation of computing power, because the ability to resolve thermal boundary layers within the convecting mantle (e.g., lithospheric plates), requires a spatial resolution of ~ 10 km. At present, the largest supercomputing facilities still barely approach the power to resolve this length scale in mantle convection simulations that include the physics necessary to model plate-like behavior. Our goal is to use supercomputing facilities to perform 3D spherical mantle convection simulations that include the ingredients for plate-like behavior, i.e. strongly temperature- and stress-dependent viscosity, at Earth-like convective vigor with a global resolution of order 10 km. In order to qualify to use such facilities, it is also necessary to demonstrate good parallel efficiency. Here we will present two kinds of results: (1) scaling properties of the community code CitcomS on DOE/NERSC's supercomputer Franklin for up to ~ 6000 processors, and (2) preliminary simulations that illustrate the role of a low-viscosity asthenosphere in plate-like behavior in mantle convection.
Höink Tobias
Lenardic Adrian
Richards Anita M.
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