How Supercomputing is Revolutionizing Our View of the Earth's Interior

TUESDAY, JULY 10
1-2 p.m. 010 West Ridge Research Building (WRRB)

Michael Thorne, postdoctoral fellow with the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at UAF, will give a presentation on "How Supercomputing is Revolutionizing Our View of the Earth's Interior," Tuesday, July 10 at 1 p.m., in room 010 of the West Ridge Research Building as part of an ongoing series to demonstrate how computer and information-based technologies are applied to solving real world problems.

According to Thorne, the propagation of seismic waves as a result of earthquakes provides a direct method of probing the Earth's interior structure. The most detailed picture of this structure is obtained by modeling the seismic waveforms. Because of computational limitations, most modeling efforts have been confined to 1-D, layer cake models. Yet, the recent widespread availability of large-scale computing has made it possible to model waveforms for complex 2- or 3-D whole earth models.

Thorne's presentation will focus on current knowledge of the structure of earth's deep interior and how supercomputing is being used to sharpen the view. In addition, he will show what some of these newer high-resolution studies are telling scientists about features in earth's lower mantle, or Core-Mantle Boundary region, and how they relate to the dynamic processes that shape the surface.

The weekly summer science seminars are hosted at UAF by ARSC every Tuesday at 1 p.m. through Aug. 7 in WRRB 010. Scientists and researchers who are using the highly sophisticated and exceptionally fast computational abilities at ARSC are presenting the weekly seminars. UAF's supercomputing center has aided in the development of 3-D computer models of tsunamis, space weather and volcanic eruptions, which have helped provide accurate and timely emergency response information to the public. Other projects focus on computer modeling of the ocean to detect shrinking polar ice caps or monitor fluctuations of fish, bird and marine mammals.

For more information, contact ARSC Chief Scientist Greg Newby at .

 

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775 | voice: 907-450-8600 | email:

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