Geoinformatics: alphaMELTS computational thermodynamics software

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This geoinformatics award will support the continued development of the alphaMELTS software package to provide a flexible, powerful, easy-to-use interface and related tools. The three-year project will employ an early-career, female scientist to create the next software generation, to interact with users to implement requested features and support their modeling efforts, to test and demonstrate the new features, to optimize the package for use in teaching, and to publicize its educational features to encourage wide adoption. All software developed by this project will be released free of charge for use by the scientific community. Projects supported by this new software package include models and algorithms for computational thermodynamics in petrology, geochemistry, and geodynamics. It enables earth scientists to execute forward models of complex petrogenetic scenarios with internal thermodynamic consistency and integrated volatile and trace element calculations. The project will explore the opening of an alphaMELTS XSEDE gateway to enable access to national high-performance computing resources and integration of computational thermodynamics into geodynamic codes on an unprecedented scale.