Heterogeneity, Anisotropy, and Anelasticity in the Lowermost Mantle and Inner Core

建议的研究重点是通过对与这些区域相互作用的地震波的分析和正演模拟，开发对地球内核和下地幔结构（复杂结构的尺度长度和形状）的约束。了解地核的结构将有助于理解固态地核从液态地核凝固的过程，而液态地核是维持地球磁场的能量来源。了解地球下地幔的结构对地幔对流模型、深部地幔柱形成模型和地幔化学模型都很重要。本研究开发的地震波场正演模拟算法涉及并行集群计算，对于资源勘探和物理科学与工程应用都具有重要意义，这些应用需要对包含三维变化物理性质的线性方程组所描述的现象进行数值模拟。

The proposed research concentrates on developing constraints on the fabric (the scale lengths and shapes of complex structures) in the inner core and lower mantle of the Earth from analysis and forward modeling of seismic waves interacting with these regions. Knowledge of the fabric of the inner core will help in understanding the process of solidification of the solid inner core from the liquid outer core, which is an energy source for maintaining the Earth's magnetic field. Knowledge of the fabric of the lower mantle of the Earth is important to models of mantle convection, deep plume formation, and chemical models of the mantle. Algorithms of forward modeling of the seismic wavefield developed in this research, which involve parallel clustered computing, are important to both resource exploration and to physical science and engineering applications requiring numerical modeling of phenomena described by systems of linear equations containing three-dimensionally varying physical properties.