Elements: Developing an integrated modeling platform for tectonics, earthquake cycles and surface processes

This project develops user-friendly and sustainable code that can simulate lithospheric deformations coupled with landscape evolution and earthquake cycles. Natural hazards such as earthquakes, flooding, landslides, and volcanoes sit at the intersection of geologic and human time scales; the ability to simulate interactions among diverse geologic processes provides a baseline to study how global changes are perturbing these processes on human time scales.

The goal of the project is to view earthquake cycles and landscape evolution as a system coupled with long-term lithospheric deformation. Multiple research communities including geomorphology, structural geology and earthquake physics are expected to benefit from the new modeling capability this project enables.

The product software extends existing open-source code, DES3D (Dynamic Earth Solver in 3D). With internal enhancements and scalable performance enabled by parallel computing technology, the software functions as a reliable integrated modeling platform that can explore interplay between tectonics, surface processes and earthquake cycles. The project includes measures to improve user experience with the product code; Web-based input file generation, useful documentation and tutorials readable and executable online will make the product code accessible and easy to use.

To facilitate sustained development and maintenance of the product code, modern software engineering practices are adopted. Container-based technology is built into the product code to create reproducible packages of a model without user intervention. To ensure that the product code will be a valuable addition to the existing cyberinfrastructure, this project will actively leverage expertise from collaborators who have conducted related research.

This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the Geophysics Program, the Tectonics Program, the Geomorphology and Land-Use Dynamics Program of the Division of Earth Sciences, and the Division of Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research within the NSF Directorate for Geosciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.