Course Elective 27 - Numerical Modelling of Mantle Geodynamics Using CitcomS

Staff involved:

Dr. Alina Hale (The University of Sydney).

Background:

The Earth’s mantle it is best characterised as a fluid. This is because even apparent solids can flow if given enough time. Consider the example of peanut butter. It looks solid, but if you were to leave the jar open and turned upside down for a couple of days it would start to flow out of the jar. In fluids, convection is a major mode of heat and mass transfer, and this is true for the Earth’s mantle. Just like a lava lamp, if heated from below a fluid can expand and decrease in density and then rise due to the force of buoyancy. Tectonic plates on the Earth’s surface can sink due to their high density associated with the cold surface layer, generating subduction zones. The result is that continents and plate tectonics organise mantle flow in the Earth.
Computational models attempt to simulate an abstract model of a particular system. They have become a useful part of mathematical modelling of many natural systems to gain insight into the operation of those systems, or to observe their behaviour. This is especially true when the time-scales are very long and/or the modelled process is very large. This course will investigate some aspects of mantle convection modelling in a spherical shell using the finite element code CitcomS.

Module Objectives:

The course has been designed for honours students in Geosciences. The course will develop the following topics:

• Significance of numerical models


• Continuum modelling and the Finite Element Method (FEM)


• Mesh generation


• Boundary conditions


• Governing equations – mass, momentum and energy


• Rheology – flow and deformation of Earth materials


• Using CitcomS – developing and running models


• Modelling mantle convection


• Analysing your results


• Visualisation

More details at: http://www.geodynamics.org/cig/software/packages/mc/citcoms/

Format, duration and timing:

The course includes lectures and practical exercises and runs over 5 days, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. The course will consist of morning lectures and practical exercises in the afternoon.

Assumed knowledge:

The SUCOGG course: "Data Processing & Plotting using the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT)" is required to take the full benefit of this course.

Module contact persons and coordinators:

• Dr. A. Hale
  School of Geosciences, Earthbyte Research Group
  The University of Sydney - Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
  Phone: 61 2 9351  3625
  Fax: 61 2 9351 0184
  E-mail: a.hale@usyd.edu.au