Short-Term Crustal Dynamics Priorities

Short-Term Crustal Dynamics Working Group priorities for Mar 2014 - Jan 2019.

• Continue PyLith development (For more details see PyLith Development Plans)
• Establish interaction with the Seismology Working Group on meshing issues (e.g., keep up-to-date on the development of Geo-CUBIT).

• Provide training via virtual workshops
  • We have another in-person workshop scheduled for June 2014. It will coincide with the release of PyLith 2.2 and will focus on intermediate and advanced topics. We solicit ideas from users on additional online training.
• Continue development of a PyLith wiki to complement the cig-short email list and PyLith manual
• Continue series of in-person workshops on biannual basis (even years)

• Inversion framework for geodetic, seismic, and combined inversions.
  • We envision plug-ins for various inversion methods, including Bayesian approaches.
  • Need a scientist to lead this effort. Responsibilities would involve getting funding, assembling a development team (might include a CIG developer), and overseeing software development.

• Observationally constrained and internally consistent physics for the entire seismic cycle
  • Resolve the entire seismic cycle in simulations that capture interseismic deformation, rupture nucleation and propagation, and postseismic deformation with realistic Earth models (geometrical complexity, material heterogeneity, and inelastic rheologies). Constraints on fault and bulk rheologies that are consistent with extensive geodetic, seismic, and geologic observations are critical to understanding the behavior of fault systems and improving the accuracy and precision of earthquake hazard assessments.
• Observationally constrained and internally consistent physics for tectonics of magmatic systems, geothermal systems, the cryosphere, and induced seismicity from fluid injection
  • Integrate modeling tectonic processes with heat and fluid flow, thereby enabling complex rheologies with temperature dependent parameters. Incorporating heat and fluid flow into tectonic modeling significantly expands the range of problems that can be addressed (such as seismic tremor in geothermal areas) and permits direct application of additional geophysical constraints. Viscoelastic, elastoplastic, and viscoplastic rheologies are important for bridging between seismic and tectonic time scales.
• Observationally constrained modeling of crustal deformation associated with surface loads
  • Constrain the bulk rheologies of the crust using geodetic and geologic observations of deformation arising from glacial rebound, reservoir impounding, and other surface loads.

Need to assess the applicability and implications of using currently available and emerging computational techniques for earthquake modeling. Techniques may impose undesirable limitations on the geometry of the domain (e.g., topography) and faults or may introduce severe ill-conditioning of the system.

• Adaptive mesh refinement (e.g., deal.ii and p4est)
  • Efficiently resolve evolving small length scale features through local refinement and coarsening of the mesh.
• Data assimilation and inversions
  • Data assimilation aids in quantifying the uncertainty in parameters based on observations.
• Multi-scale techniques
  • Introduction of multiple spatial and temporal scales through homogenization. Resolution of multiple time scales through slow/fast timescale coupling.

• Workflow management
  • Streamline problem workflow using tools to manage inputs and outputs of the various stages of modeling (creating the geologic model, meshing the domain, simulating the physics, and post-processing the results).
• Establish community benchmarks for problems that cannot be solved by current software.

• Software development
  • Must find the proper balance between providing software that is accessible to new users but also provides the flexibility and extensibility required by expert users.
  • Subcontracts for scientific driven cutting-edge development of community codes
    • Provide funding for expert users to work with code developers to add new features to community codes in order to solve specific research problems.
• Training
  • Regular, multi-day workshops are essential for training the community in the use of state-of-the-art modeling codes and tools.
  • Additional complementary training is needed to provide different levels of training.
    • Short workshops at larger scientific meetings to expand the user base
    • Extended visits by computational scientists and software engineers to expert users and earth science developers and vice versa. This could be implemented via some form of travel grants for in-depth training.
    • Focused online training for new releases, common problems, and introduction to advanced features