Geodynamics 101

Simulating the Deep Earth with MAGEMin: A Toolkit for Thermodynamic Modeling in Geodynamics

Nicolas Riel and edited by Nuno Rodrigues July 23, 2025

Understanding how rocks melt, deform, and evolve within Earth’s interior is a central challenge in geoscience. These processes span a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and are governed by complex interactions between temperature, pressure, composition, and phase stability. Capturing this complexity in numerical models requires integrating mineral thermodynamics directly into geodynamic mod ...[Read More]

Don’t Stop Me Now: A Fracture Mechanics Perspective on Earthquake Nucleation

Rajani Shrestha July 9, 2025

Schematic for a possible earthquake nucleation scenario. Inset figure adapted after Lebihain et al. (2021) and McLaskey (2019).

How do earthquakes start? Earthquakes occur when a block of rock rapidly slides past another along an interface or a discontinuity in the medium and release energy in the form of seismic waves. Turns out, the surface of the earth is riddled with a lot of these discontinuities, which we call “faults”. If we plot the locations of earthquakes on a world map (Figure 1a), we will see that they highligh ...[Read More]

The Geodynamics Division @ EGU25

Garima Shukla April 6, 2025

With the EGU General Assembly (GA) less than a month away, attendees should start planning their schedules to get the most out of the week. In today’s blog, Geodynamics (GD) Division Early Career Scientist (ECS) representative Garima Shukla highlights the GD Division’s networking events and provides an overview of key events at the GA. Networking Events: Geodynamics Division What: ECS ...[Read More]

Halokinesis: the effect and importance of the most “liquid” rocks in geodynamics

João Paulo de Souza Bueno and edited by Jamison Assunção March 26, 2025

Image made using DALL·E 3

Evaporitic rocks possess unique properties that enable them to form crucial structures for petroleum systems. Salt basins are globally distributed, particularly along the Atlantic margins. Their thermal and mechanical properties can influence the Earth’s crust, altering structural styles and basin architecture, with significant implications for hydrocarbon exploration and geodynamic processes. How ...[Read More]