HR: 0800h
AN: T31A-1261    [Abstracts]
TI: Coupling models of crustal deformation and mantle convection: An application of GeoFramework
AU: * Choi, E
EM: ces74@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Thoutireddy, P
EM: puru@cacr.caltech.edu
AF: Center for Advanced Computer Research, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Lavier, L
EM: luc@ig.utexas.edu
AF: Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78759-8500 United States
AU: Quenette, S
EM: steve@vpac.org
AF: Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton South, VIC 3053 Australia
AU: Tan, E
EM: tan2@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Gurnis, M
EM: gurnis@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Aivazis, M
EM: aivazis@caltech.edu
AF: Center for Advanced Computer Research, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Appelbe, B
EM: bill@vpac.org
AF: Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton South, VIC 3053 Australia
AB: Crustal and mantle deformation are two closely coupled dynamical systems, usually solved in isolation. To numerically solve this problem, it is desirable to have both the crust and mantle as active components of the dynamics. However, materials composing the crust and mantle respond to loading differently and two different constitutive relations are necessary to describe the rheology of this system. Deformations also occur over a wide range of length scales: from a few 100 m for fault zones to well over 10$^{4}$ km for the largest scales involved in mantle convection. As a result, the numerical cost for a single model to resolve all of these spatial features while also incorporating distinct material types is prohibitive. Coupling two distinct modeling codes within a computational framework is a natural avenue to tackle the multi-material and multi-scale dynamics associated with the crust-mantle system. Using GeoFramework (http://geoframework.org), an extension of the Pyre, Python-based modeling framework, the SNAC and CitcomS codes are dynamically coupled. CitcomS has been used in variety of studies of mantle convection; this finite element package has been entirely reengineered within the Pyre environment. SNAC is based on the FLAC algorithm and is well-suited to modeling crustal deformation because it can deal with linear elastic, Maxwell viscoelastic, or elastoplastic rheology with a Mohr-Coulomb criterion. Using the Pyre-coupled SNAC and CitcomS codes, we run 3D numerical experiments of the extension of lithosphere in the presence of a rising mantle plume within a regional spherical geometry. The full thickness of the crust is simulated with SNAC and mantle convection with CitcomS. In the far field, deformation is partly driven by prescribed velocities described by two diverging plates around a single Euler pole. This specific setting for the problem is intended to help understand the evolution of the Red Sea and Afar triple junction. We will show the dynamic outcome, including surface uplift, for different crustal rheologies, and mantle plumes during the formation of fault-bound grabens. Integrating observational dataset to constrain the models will be the next step.
UR: http://geoframework.org
DE: 8109 Continental tectonics--extensional (0905)
DE: 8110 Continental tectonics--general (0905)
DE: 8120 Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle--general
DE: 8121 Dynamics, convection currents and mantle plumes
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting