Investigating subduction dynamics using 4-D geodynamic models with data assimilation

Lijun Liu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Lijun Liu, Ching Chang, Jiashun Hu, Benjamin Murphy, Diandian Peng, Zebin Cao, Yaoyi Wang, Yiming Liu, Sibiao Liu, Liang Liu

The theory of plate tectonics, describing the lateral movement of Earth's solid surface over time, has forged the foundation of modern Earth science. However, both the origin (physical mechanisms) and consequences (connection to deep mantle and surface geology) of plate tectonics remain debated. The past decades of intense geoscience observations result in an enormous amount of geoinformation, which could and should be the driver for the next breakthrough in our understanding of the functioning of the solid Earth. Here we propose to take advantage of the power of supercomputing and data science, with the purpose of constructing a new generation of geodynamic models that have the capability to unify the theory of plate tectonics, Earth's internal structures, and various surface geological records. During the past decade, the PI has been spearheading in this research and has developed both forward- and backward-in-time data assimilation methods for large-scale geodynamic simulations, mostly using regional Earth models. Here we plan to expand to the global scale that has no artificial model boundaries inside the mantle. Such simulations have a great potential in solving many outstanding geoscience questions such as the formation of volcanoes and earthquakes far from plate boundaries, the mysterious ups and downs of continents, as well as the evolution of the Earth's lithosphere over super-continental cycles.