Planning Conference on Computational Geodynamics (July 2002)

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

0221772 Richards This grant supports costs associated with a planning conference to be held at the Granlibakken Conference Center in Tahoe City, CA on 25-26 July 2002. The intent of the planning conference is to develop the foundation of a community-supported and accessible science center/computational facility proposal to be submitted in the future to the Division of Earth Sciences. Approximately 40 participants representing leading scholars in the fields of geophysical modeling, seismology and geodynamo theory from U.S. and international academia and government laboratories will attend. In principle, the center would focus on open development and implementation of complex numerical algorithms for simulating the dynamics of deep earth processes, many of which are difficult if not impossible to verify experimentally. The facility would enable more realistic and complex models of mantle and core convection and geomagnetic field behavior to be developed and run than is currently possible due to limited and/or dedicated computational and personnel resources of individual investigators, academic institutions and supercomputer centers. The ideal facility would also ensure sharing and standardized benchmarking of important geodynamic codes not only across the U. S. academic community, but also internationally. Further, such a facility would ultimately provide access to investigators and their students who are currently hampered by insufficient resources, both computational and intellectual, to become involved in state-of-the-art theoretical geodynamic research. ***