Professor Lucy Flesch
Purdue University

The theory of plate tectonics tends to breakdown at continental collisional boundaries where deformation is diffuse and highly spatially variable.  Large-scale continental deformation has traditionally been modeled as 2-D averaged over the thickness of the lithosphere or in 2-D cross section.  Due the large increase in both seismic and geodetic observations within these regions it is obvious both vertical and lateral heterogeneity need to be considered.  Thus, several groups are addressing the 3-D nature of continental lithosphere.

This talk will focus on the workflow and benchmarking of building a 3-D geodynamic lithospheric model.  We will first discuss generating and benchmarking numeric simulations to analog models.  Then discuss the expansion of these results to include the curvature of the Earth, lateral and vertical variable model parameters to begin simulations of the India-Eurasia collision zone.

[All 2014-15 webinars] [YouTube]

1. Flesch
2. webinar
3. 2015