CCM Colloquium: Georg Stadler (NYU)

Wednesday Nov 20, 2024, 10:00 AM → 11:00 AM America/New_York

Inference of Earth's viscosity structure using plate-boundary
resolving viscous fluid simulations

Abstract: This talk summarizes progress in inferring rheological parameters
within Earth's interior and highlights the enabling mathematical
methods. On million-year timescales, Earth's evolution is driven by
viscous fluid dynamics, underpinning processes such as plate
tectonics, mountain formation, and volcanism. Simulating these
phenomena, and inferring the uncertain parameters governing them
requires highly resolved models of non-Newtonian incompressible Stokes
flow with up to 10^9 degrees of freedom. I will highlight three key
mathematical advancements: (1) a novel Newton linearization for
nonlinear viscous-plastic fluid equations that significantly improves
nonlinear convergence, (2) preconditioners designed for the
saddle-point problems arising from linearization, and (3)
derivative-based methods for approximate Bayesian parameter inference.
This work is a collaboration with M. Gurnis (Caltech), J. Hu
(Shenzhen), J. Rudi (Virginia Tech), and Y. Shih (NVIDIA).