Numerical modelling is not always a walk in the park. In fact, many of us occasionally encounter problems that we cannot directly solve ourselves, and thus rely on help from others. In this month’s Wit & Wisdom post, Patrick Sanan, postdoctoral researcher at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics group at ETH Zurich, will talk about asking the right questions about scientific software. As an experienc ...[Read More]
Continents are essential for the development and survival of life on Earth. However, as surprising as it may sound, there did not exist a planetary scale numerical model to show the formation of the oldest continents until the recent study ‘Growing primordial continental crust self-consistently in global mantle convection models‘ in Gondwana Research by Jain et al., 2019. Hot off the p ...[Read More]
“The present is the key to the past” is a oft-used phrase in the context of understanding our planet’s complex evolution. But this perspective can also be flipped, reflected, and reframed. In this Geodynamics 101 post, Lorenzo Colli, Research Assistant Professor at the University of Houston, USA, showcases some of the recent advances in modelling mantle convection. Mantl ...[Read More]
The earliest continents played a fundamental role on Earth’s habitability. However, their generation is still not understood, and it requires an integrated approach between petrology and geodynamic modelling. In a new study, Piccolo and co-workers developed a method to handle the effects of chemical evolution on the geodynamic processes. They show that the production of the earliest felsic c ...[Read More]
