4-D Geodynamic Modeling with Data Assimilation: Origin of Intra-Plate Volcanism in the Pacific Northwest

Lijun Liu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Continental volcanism represents a major natural hazard on Earth. Understanding the formation mechanism of volcanism has an apparently broad interest to both the scientific community and human society. With the proposed work, we hope to clear out existing confusions on the interpretation of surface volcanic features, mantle seismic images, and the system's overall evolution with time. The proposed research has a clear interest to many fields of earth science such as seismology, geophysics, geochemistry, mineral physics, climate and natural hazard studies. This research will be broadly transformative due to its multidisciplinary nature.

Besides the apparent scientific value, this research will produce excellent lecture materials for general education. Since Yellowstone is a popular tourism site, the results from this study would make an easy connection with basic Earth science education. To fulfill this goal, we plan to participate in outreach activities such as the iRISE program to deliver K-12 lectures through online teaching. Finally, results from this research will be converted into plain text and images to be displayed in the "Museum of the Earth" at U of I, which has a large visitor size (6,000 per year).