Both earthquakes and research project directions can be hard to predict. This week Becky Fildes, a graduate student at UC Davis, takes us on a journey of how she came to study earthquake behavior in Hawaii during an active volcanic eruption and how our understanding of caldera collapses can be further improved. In my first year of graduate school in 2017, I had started studying earthquake statisti ...[Read More]
This week Daniel Douglas, who is now a PhD student at New Mexico Tech, discusses his master thesis research while at the university of Hawaii. He investigated the role of magma in the flexure of the Hawaiian lithosphere. When a topographic load is applied to the lithosphere, the lithosphere accommodates the load by flexing. The observed flexure can be measured through seismic methods, gravity anom ...[Read More]
In January of this year, Bob Myhill wrote about the coupling of geodynamics and thermodynamics, and why this coupling is so valuable. This blog post, Juliane Dannberg follows up on this topic, looking at it from the geodynamics perspective. In other words, discussing the question: Where does it make a difference in geodynamic models if we include realistic thermodynamic models or not? In geodynami ...[Read More]
As fascinating as the plate tectonics and its accompanying dynamics are, continental interiors are no quiescent zones. The tectonics within these interiors are apparent in the occurrence of numerous intraplate earthquakes, and this week, EGU blog editor Arushi Saxena briefly discusses them and their mechanisms. Earthquakes are a fairly common occurrence here on Earth’s crust. Although most are ess ...[Read More]
The deadline for submitting nominations is arriving soon. So it is the perfect time for EGU Geodynamics President Jeroen van Hunen to explain what awards there are and how easy it is to nominate you colleague for it! This is my first-ever EGU GD blog (in fact, this is the first time I am writing a blog at all). I feel like stepping into a new world. The topic of this blog is EGU medals and awards. ...[Read More]
On February 23 and 25, 2021, the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) organized its first Developer Workshop. CIG is a community organization that advances Earth science by developing and disseminating software for geophysics and related fields. The goal of the meeting was to bring the CIG developer community together to discuss current issues and opportunities. Brad Aagaard (U.S. Ge ...[Read More]
In preparation for Valentines day, Bob Myhill explores the potential for close partnership (and even love?) between the geodynamics and thermodynamics communities. Much of Earth and planetary science relies in some way on thermodynamics. This is not a surprise; the elegance1 of its premises makes thermodynamics a robust starting point for many investigations, and the number of thermodynamic applic ...[Read More]
Moving a country for a new job is a big step, but at the same time changing from an industry job to academics is definitely a leap in the unknown. This week Arushi Saxena, currently a post-doc at the University of Florida, writes about her experience taking these two steps at the same time. As geodynamicists, we are well aware that our numerical models are a function of the input parameters. A re ...[Read More]
Nowadays geodynamics can involve a lot of 3D data which has to be analyzed. This week Oliver Kreylos, a researcher with the UC Davis W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES) and the UC Davis DataLab, shows us an alternative to looking at 3D data or models on a 2D screen: looking at them in full 3D through virtual reality! One problem in studying Earth’s dee ...[Read More]
This week the seventh yearly hackathon of the geodynamics code ASPECT is taking place. But what actually is a hackathon, why is it useful and how did it get started in the first place? This week, Wolfgang Bangerth, one of the founders of ASPECT, explores all these questions for us. Due to the intensity of a hackathon, he wrote this article before the start of the hackathon. It’s really not p ...[Read More]