NUMERICAL MODELS OF PLATE TECTONICS, MANTLE CONVECTION AND SLAB DYNAMICS WITH EVOLVING FAULTS

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We plan to develop a method for simulating large-scale geological structures with a much improved treatment of tectonic faults in 3D. Current computer models have sharp geological faults at plate boundaries represented by broad, blurred zones. New techniques for modeling cracks in engineering structures will be scaled up to the whole Earth. This will help us to understand how the Earth's plates move and interact now and in the past and how the structure of the continents arose. Not only is this intrinsically interesting, it will also be of immediate practical benefit to geological modelers.