CREST-PRF: Optimization of Joint Inversion of Geophysical Data to Improve 3-Dimensional Models of Earth Structures

CREST-PRF：优化地球物理数据联合反演以改进地球结构的三维模型

• 批准号: 1827245
• 负责人: Azucena Zamora
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Zamora Azucena
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-01 至 2021-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1827245&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CREST; PRF; Optimization; Joint; Inversion

Optimization of Joint Inversion of Geophysical Data to Improve 3-Dimensional Models of Earth StructuresThe Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology-Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (CREST-PRF) track within the CREST program supports beginning CREST Center investigators with significant potential and provides them with training and research experiences that will broaden perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and establish them in positions of leadership within the scientific community. This CREST-PRF project is aligned with the research focus of the CREST Cyberinfrastructure for Sharing resources to Advance Research and Education (Cyber-ShARE) Center of Excellence at the University of Texas at El Paso. Earth sciences aim to determine the interior composition of the Earth by using a wide array of methods to understand its changes throughout the millennia and predict possible future behavior. For example, regions with relatively low seismic activity have experienced earthquakes due to motion of tectonic faults within the Earth's dynamic interior. Moreover, atypical plate tectonic processes, such as the breaking of a subducting oceanic plate that occurred with recent Mexico earthquakes in September 2017 make understanding the complex processes imperative to avoid future catastrophes. This research project will characterize the location and condition of seismological faults and the current state of ancient strains in the lower crust and address fundamental questions about the tectonic evolution of the Earth. Specifically, the project will develop and improve 3-Dimensional (3-D) Earth models in targeted regions through the optimization of the joint inversion of complementary seismic (surface wave group velocities and teleseismic P-wave receiver functions) and non-seismic (Bouguer gravity anomalies) datasets. The combined resolution of these datasets will allow pinpointing of key features within the subsurface that may be overlooked by the geophysical surveys. Early college, high school and traditional K-12 students will be engaged in this project.The proposed research will develop and apply numerical optimization to improve the resolution of 3-D Earth structure models. Although important methods have been previously developed to optimize the results obtained from the inversion of complementary datasets for increasingly complex geological environments, recent more powerful mathematical tools have provided evidence that constrained optimization techniques can greatly improve final structural models for the interior of the Earth. The use of primal-dual interior point methods for the joint inversion of seismic and non-seismic datasets can provide further improvement to 3-D imaging of the Earth by constraining the solution space and focusing only on feasible structural models. Part 1 of this project involves the development of computational algorithms to optimize the results obtained from the joint inversion of multiple datasets. In Part 2, the processes involved in the optimization will be analyzed to determine the optimal and most cost-effective division of work to simultaneously execute the code (parallel programming) in a multi-core environment. These algorithms will be applied to datasets from Colombia to obtain a new tectonic understanding of its complex substructure-characterized by a unique geological setting where the Cocos, Caribbean, and South American plates converge.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

地球物理数据联合反演的优化以改进地球结构的三维模型科学技术卓越研究中心-博士后研究奖学金（CREST-PRF）轨道在CREST计划支持开始CREST中心研究人员具有显着的潜力，并为他们提供培训和研究经验，将拓宽视野，促进跨学科的互动，并使他们在科学界处于领导地位。该CREST-PRF项目与德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校的CREST网络基础设施的研究重点保持一致，该网络基础设施用于共享资源，以推进研究和教育（网络共享）卓越中心。地球科学旨在通过使用各种方法来确定地球的内部组成，以了解其在数千年中的变化并预测未来可能的行为。例如，地震活动相对较低的地区由于地球动态内部的构造断层运动而经历了地震。此外，非典型的板块构造过程，例如2017年9月墨西哥地震发生的俯冲海洋板块的断裂，使得理解复杂的过程对于避免未来的灾难至关重要。这一研究项目将确定地震断层的位置和条件以及下地壳古代应变的现状，并解决有关地球构造演变的基本问题。具体而言，该项目将通过优化互补地震数据集（面波群速度和超声波P波接收器函数）和非地震数据集（布格重力异常）的联合反演，开发和改进目标区域的三维地球模型。这些数据集的综合分辨率将允许精确定位可能被地球物理勘测忽略的地下关键特征。早期的大学，高中和传统的K-12学生将从事这个项目。拟议的研究将开发和应用数值优化，以提高三维地球结构模型的分辨率。虽然以前已经开发了重要的方法来优化从日益复杂的地质环境的互补数据集的反演获得的结果，最近更强大的数学工具提供的证据表明，约束优化技术可以大大提高地球内部的最终结构模型。使用原始-对偶内点方法对地震和非地震数据集进行联合反演，可以通过约束解空间和只关注可行的结构模型来进一步改善地球的3-D成像。该项目的第1部分涉及计算算法的开发，以优化从多个数据集的联合反演获得的结果。在第2部分中，将分析优化中涉及的流程，以确定在多核环境中同时执行代码（并行编程）的最佳和最具成本效益的工作分工。这些算法将应用于哥伦比亚的数据集，以获得对其复杂子结构的新的构造理解-其特征是可可群岛，加勒比海和南美洲板块会聚的独特地质环境。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。