Scientific Visualization Gallery
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| Mantle Convection using Adaptive Mesh Refinement Carsten Burstedde, Omar Ghattas (PI), Mike Gurnis (PI), Georg Stadler, Eh Tan, Tiankai Tu, Lucas C. Wilcox, Shijie Zhong (PI). UT Austin, Caltech, and Colorado-Boulder. Visualization by Romy Schneider, TACC. Mantle convection is simulated on Ranger at an unprecedented range of scales using Rhea, an adaptive mesh code developed at UT Austin. Parallel adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening (AMR) is essential in order to conduct global mantle convection simulations that can resolve faulted plate boundaries down to 1 km scales. This image displays a snapshot of one of these runs on Ranger. The cold top boundary layer and the downwelling slab are shown as a blue isosurface and warmer, localized upwelling plumes are shown in orange. The multi-colored vertical mesh shows the varying degrees of resolution throughout the model. The finest areas of the mesh are concentrated in areas of high temperature contrast around the rising plumes and downwelling slab, while the coarsest mesh areas represent relatively isothermal regions. |