2014 AGU Week
CIG Sessions AGU 2014
A self-reporting selection of sessions being organized by the CIG Community.
For all AGU 2014 session see: AGU 2014 Scientific Program
Submit session of interest to: events@geodynamics.org
Study of the Earth's Deep Interiors (DI)
DI003: DRIVING THE INTERIOR: THE ROLE OF BOUNDARY LAYERS IN THE DYNAMIC EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH'S MANTLE
Mantle dynamics at different scales are influenced by boundary layer processes. The upper boundary layer of the mantle affects subduction processes and the driving of plate tectonics and links the solid interior to the surface. The bottom boundary layer controls plume generation and the location and generation of thermochemical features such as LLSVPs and ULVZs and links mantle dynamics to the outer core. The two boundary layers connect Earth's surface, core and mantle interior and govern their interaction. Understanding the dynamics in the boundary layers will thus help to link shallow and deep mantle processes and these processes to observations, on scales ranging from local to global. This session aims to explore the mechanisms and dynamics of the boundary layers, including (but not limited to) dynamic generation of subduction zones, plate tectonics, mantle plumes, and heat transfer.
Session Conveners: Keely Anne O'Farrell, University College London; Shijie Zhong, University of Colorado at Boulder; and Tobias Rolf, ETH Zurich, Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics.
DI010: STATE OF THE ART IN COMPUTATIONAL GEOSCIENCE
This session highlights computational advances in areas such as lithospheric and mantle dynamics, magma and fluid transport, landscape evolution, polar ice, subsurface flow, Earth structure inversion and Earth material properties. We seek contributions from all aspects of geophysical computation including: accurate, robust multiscale discretizations and efficient, scalable solvers; multilevel, block decomposed, and structure-preserving representations of operators, addressing model non-smoothness, and utilizing next generation hardware; dissemination of efficient/flexible/performant open source packages for the Earth science community; data assimilation with uncertainty and experimental design; application studies within Earth science utilizing High Performance Computing.Session Conveners: Jed Brown, Argonne National Laboratory; Dave May, ETH Zurich,; Boris Kaus, University Mainz; and Richard T Mills, Oak Ridge National Lab.
DI014. THE STRUCTURE, DYNAMICS, AND EVOLUTION OF EARTH'S CORE: OBSERVATIONS, MODELS, AND EXPERIMENTS
In recent years, our knowledge of Earth's core has advanced tremendously thanks to contributions from experiments, observations and modeling. Many questions remain, however, and the goal of this SEDI session is to bring together researchers from all fields investigating aspects of the core. Among the many topics for discussion within the scope of this session are: What is the structure of the inner core, and what combination of dynamics and mineralogy can explain it? Do stable layers exist anywhere in the outer core and, if so, do they have a thermal or compositional origin? What kind of fluid waves may have an imprint on geomagnetic observations, and can we reliably account for them in geodynamo models? Can we use observations of the current structure of the core to constrain core formation processes, the long-term evolution of the core and/or the implied core composition?
Session Conveners: Jessica C E Irving, Princeton University; Alexandre Fournier, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris; Caitlin A Murphy, Geophysical Laboratory; and Jonathan M Aurnou, University of California Los Angeles.
Earth and Space Science Informatics(IN)
IN032. PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE SCIENCE SOFTWARE, WIDENING THE DIALOG: PERSPECTIVES FROM AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN END USERS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND INSTITUTIONS
The concept of sustainable science software-- think model code, processing algorithms and so on-- has become an increasingly vital part of the conversation related to reproducible science and part of the conversation within the Earth and space science informatics community. In this session we propose to continue the dialog started at the Fall 2013 AGU meeting. However, instead of focusing on how to promote sustainable software within communities, we propose to broaden the dialog by including organizational and institutional responses to community needs. The goal will be to invite papers that look at the sustainable software challenges from the perspective of end-user needs, from the perspective of existing efforts to address these challenges, and from organizational perspectives. In addition, we seek also to explore the interactions between these various stakeholders to further the goal of creating sustainable science software.
Session Conveners: W. Christopher Lenhardt1, Matthew B. Jones1, Mark Schildhauer1 and Ray Idaszak2. (1) National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, (2) Renaissance Computing Institute.
Public Affairs (PA)
PA004: CONNECTING GEOSCIENCE WITH THE ARTS II
The connection between the arts and science is becoming an increasingly important topic. For example, new technology and large data sets expand new ways that artists create their artistic vision and scientists visualize their scientific understanding. Curriculum and entire schools are emerging to include the arts in STEM fields. We invite abstracts from a broad spectrum of artists of all types, geoscientists, educators, and museum specialists to explore Earth as a source of inspiration, reveal how an understanding of geoscience and Earth materials inform art, highlight climate and environmental change, focus on arts-based approaches to communicate or personalize geoscience concepts, document the contribution of arts training to geospatial thinking, and describe how art enhances and provokes scientific investigation. We also encourage submissions that call attention to art-science collaborations that promote an understanding of geoscience and those that empower communities to action.
Session Conveners: Katherine Kelly Ellins, Univ of Texas-Inst for Geophys; Susan Eriksson, Eriksson Associates; Gary Braasch, Self Employed; and John F. Dewey, University of California, Davis.
Seismology (S)
S016: IMAGING THE EARTH: FROM DATA TO PROCESSES
The main goal of seismic imaging is to infer the Earth’s dynamics, composition and evolution. Our view of the Earth is transforming - from crust to core, on local to global scales - thanks to the advent of high-density networks, new modeling techniques, and unprecedented HPC capacity. While a new generation of Earth models is emerging, the link between seismic structure and the underlying geodynamical and tectonic processes often remains qualitative.
We invite presentations on all aspects related to seismic imaging with special focus on quantitative inferences of Earth dynamics (from subduction processes, extensional and compressional tectonic motions changing the lithosphere, to deep Earth mantle convection) as well as discussions on the imaging method resolution that could limit our interpretations. We also welcome presentations on new techniques that harness large emerging data sets, original measurements, and modern computational methods to develop these intriguing images.
Session Conveners: Monica Maceira, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States;Carene S Larmat, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States;Andreas Fichtner, ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; and Paula Koelemeijer, University of Cambridge, Bullard Laboratories, Cambridge, United Kingdom
S020: MULTISCALE DYNAMICS OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTING
Earthquake faulting involves physical processes operating over length scales which range from millimeter wide primary slip zones on the time scale of milliseconds to seconds during rupture, to the evolution of fault systems spanning hundreds of kilometers over thousands of years. Capturing the interaction among processes across this broad range of spatial and temporal scales necessitates multiscale approaches to numerical modeling, observations, and laboratory experiments. We invite submissions covering topics in this area, including earthquake initiation and triggering, rupture across multiple fault segments, effects of fault-surface roughness on source dynamicsand near-field radiation, influence of bulk and fault rheologies on post-seismic deformation and slip localization, and evolution of fault zones and fault systems. Observational and laboratory studies that address multi-scale earthquake dynamics, computational efficiency, validation of modeling approaches, and leveraging of state-of-the-art open-source tools are all topics of particular interest.
Session Conveners: Brad Aagaard (USGS, Menlo Park), Alice-Agnes Gabriel (Ludwig Maximilians Universitat Munchen), Matthew Knepley (University of Chicago), Paul Martin Mai (KAUST)
Tectonophysics (T)
T036: TOWARDS CONSTRAINING SUBDUCTION ZONE DYNAMICS
The subduction of lithosphere and its interactions with the mantle are recognized as fundamental solid Earth processes, yet the dynamics of this system remains unclear. How subduction zones initiate, evolve and eventually terminate is poorly understood, as constraints imposed by geological and geophysical observables are ambiguous. We solicit contributions that address present-day seismic structure, rheology, surface motions, temperature distribution, chemistry, mineralogy, topography or stress of subduction zones, in order to provide insight into the dynamics of the initiation, termination and/or evolution of subduction along convergent margins. We encourage contributions from any and all depth ranges relevant to subduction dynamics, i.e. from the surface to the lowermost mantle, and from both observational, computational and experimental point of views.
Invited Speakers: Jenny Di Leo (University of Bristol), Neil Ribe (UPMC/Université Paris-Sud), Tobias Rolf (University of Oslo) and Karin Sigloch (University of Oxford).
Session Conveners: Huw Davies (Cardiff University), Fabio Capitanio (Monash Universtiy) Rhodri Davies (Australia National University) and Saskia Goes (Imperial College London).