Acquisition of Computational and Analytical Facilities for 3-Dimensional Imaging and Visualization in Geophysics, Petrology, and Hydrogeology

这笔赠款支持购置一台16处理器集群计算机和相关的成像硬件和软件，以促进对地球下地幔和内核的二维和三维结构的建模研究，以及对凝固玄武岩组构的研究。该系统处理能力的增强将特别有助于小尺度(1-1000公里)地球非均质性的地震成像。地球的小尺度结构组构对于理解洋壳的形成、地幔对流、板片旋回、羽流的形成和内核的固化具有重要意义。内核的小尺度组构控制着内核边界的变形及其与内核和地幔的差异旋转以及地球磁场的关系。这次收购对小规模结构的新限制也有助于确定下地幔中不均匀结构的起源：残留板、固体-固体相变、原始地幔池、部分熔融或核-地幔化学反应。***

0236721CormierThis grant provides support for the acquisition of a 16 processor cluster computer and related imaging hardware and software facilitate modeling studies of two- and three-dimensional structure of the earth's lower mantle and inner core and studies of the fabric of solidifying basalt. The increased processing power of the system will particularly aid in the seismic imaging of small scale (1-1000 km) heterogeneity of the earth. The small-scale structural fabric of the Earth is important to the understanding of the formation of oceanic crust, mantle convection, slab cycling, plume formation, and solidification of the inner core. The small-scale fabric of the inner core controls deformation of the inner core boundary and its relation to the differential rotation of the inner core and mantle and the earth's magnetic field. New constraints on the small-scale structures enabled by the acquisition can also aid in determining the origin of the heterogeneous structure in the lower mantle: remnant slabs, solid-solid phase transitions, pools of primitive mantle, partial melt, or core-mantle chemical reactions. ***