Upgrade of Computing Facilities to support Geodynamics and Tectonics Research at UC Davis

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This award will fund the acquisition of compute nodes to add to one of UC Davis' community clusters in order to support both currently funded and future NSF research projects. With this funding, 8 nodes (384 cores) with 128 TB of storage will be added to the community cluster providing computing resources needed to carry out numerical simulations related to several different research projects. The compute nodes will support projects for both current and future graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs conducting research within the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Having direct access to these resources helps students to learn about high performance computing. Numerical simulations are a powerful method for testing hypothesis about how various aspects of subduction occur, including the interplay between dynamics, material properties and mineralogy. This funding will provide the infrastructure needed to conduct models on: 1) currently funded NSF projects including the development of lattice-preferred orientation in subduction zones and its connection to seismic anisotropy and the coupling between, slab and mantle deformation and surface deformation in the present-day Cascadia subduction zone, 2) other current projects on the role of the plate boundary shear zone in controlling trench retreat, and modeling thermal shear instabilities within the deep slab, and 3) planned research projects, including the link between strain-rate variation in subducted lithosphere and the distribution and triggering mechanism for deep earthquakes, the mechanism by which fluids enter the oceanic crust in the bending region of the outer rise, and the interaction between rising mantle plumes and subducting slabs.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.