Mathematics Colloquium: Catherine Cooper (Washington State University)

Thursday, February 23 2012 at 3:30 PM

Location: TLC 032

Mathematics Colloquium: Catherine Cooper (Washington State University), titled "A Journey into Computational Geodynamics: How Fluid Dynamics + Numerical Simulations + Math = Geology," will occur Feb. 23 at 3:30 p.m. in TLC 032.
 
ABSTRACT: While most envision a geologist as someone who spends most of their time banging on rocks, there is a whole community of Earth scientists who bang on computers to better understand the inner workings of our planet. Since the dawning of the plate tectonics¹ revolution, Earth scientists have been working to connect the physics that dictates convective systems to the geologic observations. Much of the success of this initiative is due to the development and use of numerical simulations that model convection within the Earth¹s interior. In this presentation, I will showcase the results of both two- and three-dimensional simulations of infinite Prandtl, high Rayleigh number convecting systems with partial insulating lids. These simulations demonstrate the first order role that continents play in the Earth¹s thermal evolution as well as our attempts to unravel and quantify that capacity.

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