ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Geological processes are generally quite complex and occur under a wide range of thermodynamic conditions. The structure and the properties of crystalline and non-crystalline phases in the Earth’s interior are often not accessible directly and must be investigated by experiments and by numerical simulations. In this project, we use predictive molecular simulation approaches to establish relations between structural properties of relevant phases, in particular oxide and silicate glasses and melts and aqueous fluids, at high temperatures and high pressures and their respective thermodynamic and physical properties.

Much of what one refers to as geological activity of the Earth arises from convective processes within the Earth’s mantle that transport heat from the deep interior of our planet to the surface. One of the major challenges in the geosciences is to constrain the distribution and magnitude of the resulting vast forces that drive plate tectonics. Mantle flow also provides boundary conditions - thermal and mechanical - to other key elements of the Earth system (e.g., geodesy, geodynamo/geomagnetism). This makes fluid dynamic studies of the mantle essential to our understanding of how the entire planet works. In a long-term effort, scientists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München strive for improved computational models of the Earth's…

Understanding the physics of earthquake rupture occurring on multiple scales and at depths that cannot be probed directly is a ‘Grand Challenge’ of Earth sciences. Geophysicists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität use the in-house-developed SeisSol earthquake simulation software to improve fundamental comprehension of earthquake dynamics by numerical simulation of complicated wave and rupture phenomena.

Scientists of the Institute for Hydrodynamics of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have – for the first time – performed high-fidelity numerical simulations of the formation of sediment patterns in a channel flow configuration.

Minerals, melts and fluids are the building blocks of our planet Earth. Their formation and alteration are driven by thermodynamics and depend on pressure, temperature and the local availability of chemical elements. Geological processes are especially efficient at high temperatures as prevalent in the Earth's interior and in the presence of melts or (aqueous) fluids. However, direct observations, e.g. by deep drilling, are limited to about 12 km depth. Experimental studies at the extreme conditions of the deeper Earth are challenging and not always easy to interpret. Therefore, a good understanding of what happens beneath our feet can only be obtained by combined efforts from various disciplines of the Earth sciences.

A porous medium is a material characterized by the presence of holes, or “pores“. These pores are usually surrounded by a solid and can be filled with a gas or a liquid. In nature one can find many examples of porous media, such as many types of rock (e.g. in oil reservoirs or aquifers). Many types of man-made porous media exist too, as they can be designed to have very useful properties. For example, porous media form the basis of many types of reactors, filters, or fuel cells.

Supported by the experts of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), computer scientists, mathematicians, and geophysicists of the Technische Universität München (TUM) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) collectively optimised and completely parallelised the 70,000 lines of code of SeisSol, a software to simulate earth quakes, to optimally leverage the parallel architecture of SuperMUC.

Mantle convection is a vital component of the Earth system. The relentless deformation taking place in the mantle by viscous creep has a far greater impact on our planet than might be immediately evident. Immense forces are at work in mantle convection cells: continuously reshaping Earth's surface, the mantle provides the enormous driving forces necessary to support large scale horizontal motion, in the form of plate tectonics and associated earthquake and mountain building activity.

Ground shaking due to an earthquake not only depends on the energy radiated at the source but also on propagation effects and amplification due to the response of geological structures. A further step in the assessment of seismic hazard, beyond the evaluation of the earthquake generation potential, requires then a detailed knowledge of the local Earth structure and of its effects on the seismic wave field. 

Whenever we travel by plane, we often experience that the flight becomes bumpy quite suddenly during the descent. This phenomenon causes not only discomfort to the passengers, but also a few headaches to climate scientists, whose models depend critically on properties associated with this phenomenon.