Modeling Earth’s Interior from Atomic to Global Scale

Geophysics stands on a synergistic tripod consisting of seismology, geodynamics, and mineral physics and petrology. It advances by close cooperation between these fields that can be computationally very intensive. Mineral physics’ role in this context is to provide information on mineral properties that are needed i) to interpret seismic tomography and ii) to bolster advanced and more refined geodynamics simulations. Computational mineral physics, in particular, has contributed greatly to the integration of these fields. It has complemented experiments by expanding the pressure and temperature range in which properties can be obtained and has offered access to atomic scale phenomena that sometimes suggested new interpretations of experimental and seismological data.

This talk gives an overview of the cooperation between computational mineral physics, seismology, and geodynamics that is taking place today. This trans-disciplinary dialog has resulted in a global-scale modeling field that starts at the atomic scale and could become typical of other scientific modeling fields, e.g., atmospheric and ocean science, astrophysics, materials processing, biological systems, etc.