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Geodynamics

ASPECT

Phase transitions control plume layering during Earth’s secular cooling

Phase transitions control plume layering during Earth’s secular cooling

  Earth’s structure and dynamics have evolved quite a lot since its formation, and so has mantle dynamics and convection patterns changed along with it. It turns out that phase transition in certain mantle minerals can be an important driver of this change. Today, Ranpeng Li from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany explains how coupling geodynamic models with thermodynami ...[Read More]

New Insights into Plume Buoyancy Fluxes and Dynamic Topography from Numerical Modelling

New Insights into Plume Buoyancy Fluxes and Dynamic Topography from Numerical Modelling

Figure 1. Illustration of the hotspot swell and plume buoyancy flux. White dashed line shows the original seafloor topography due to half-space cooling. Dark green line represents the surface dynamic topography caused by the dynamic uplift of the plume. One of the main surface expressions of dynamic topography are hotpot swells formed by mantle plumes. In this week’s post, Ziqi Ma, PhD candi ...[Read More]

ASPECT 2021 hackathon

Minions with or versus dinos?

Last year we introduced the ASPECT hackaton on this geodynamics blog. It was the first hackathon which went virtual which brought a whole set of new challenges. This year was the 8th version of the yearly hackathon, and it was still virtual (unfortunately). Fortunately lessons where learned from the previous virutal hackathon and generally from working more than a year online. Therefore a short bl ...[Read More]

Locking people up to program — or: “What is a hackathon?”

Locking people up to program — or: “What is a hackathon?”

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]