Upgrade of Department of Geosciences Digital Mapping and Modeling Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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The upgrade of the Digital Mapping and Modeling Laboratory in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will provide an integrated training and research facility where graduate and advanced undergraduate students, in a range of geoscience fields, can synergistically engage in problem solving using state-of-the-art computers. In this work, the areas of research include (1) computer mapping and visualization that integrate numerical data, movies, animations, images, other multi-media datasets (2) understanding the feedback in the largely water-driven movement of mass and energy in subsurface environments, (3) understanding coastal, estuarine and fluvial processes, with a focus on sediment transport and deposits, to improve the understanding of paleoclimate, coastal morphology, and sea-level rise, as well as their interconnections, (4) understanding the evolution of three-dimensional geologic faults by using cutting-edge software to visualize and develop models of them, and solve for how they deform rocks, and (5) applying geologic constraints to create a coupled climate-ice sheet model to understand, for example, the 60-million-year history of the Antarctic ice sheet, and role played by sea ice feedback in its evolution.All of these areas of research have a component of practical significance to the public. For example, by including movies and animations of the processes that created the geology shown on maps, the public can gain an immediate understanding of the processes that formed the features seen. Our understanding of coastal processes, for example those that lead to local changes in sea-level, may have a direct impact on land-use planning. Similarly, our understanding of the possible location, magnitude, and geometry of a given movement on a fault could also have an impact on land use planning, to highlight three of these five areas.