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

马萨诸塞州阿默斯特大学地球科学系数字制图和建模实验室的升级将提供一个综合培训和研究设施，使地球科学各领域的研究生和高年级本科生能够协同使用最先进的计算机解决问题。在这项工作中，研究领域包括（1）计算机绘图和可视化，整合数值数据，电影，动画，图像，其他多媒体数据集（2）了解地下环境中主要由水驱动的质量和能量运动的反馈，（3）了解海岸，河口和河流过程，重点是沉积物输运和沉积，提高对古气候、海岸形态和海平面上升及其相互联系的理解，（4）通过使用尖端软件可视化和开发三维地质断层的模型来理解三维地质断层的演化，并解决它们如何使岩石变形，（5）应用地质约束建立气候-冰盖耦合模型，以了解例如南极冰盖6000万年的历史，以及海冰反馈在其演变中所起的作用。所有这些研究领域都有对公众有实际意义的组成部分。 例如，通过包括创建地图上显示的地质过程的电影和动画，公众可以立即了解形成所看到的特征的过程。 我们对沿海过程的了解，例如那些导致海平面局部变化的过程，可能对土地使用规划产生直接影响。 同样，我们对断层上给定运动的可能位置、幅度和几何形状的理解也可能对土地利用规划产生影响，突出这五个领域中的三个。

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.