Planetary Pulsations: Exploring Links between Superplumes, Supercontinents, and Superchrons with 3-D Spherical Mantle Convection Models. This project advances the tools and knowledge base regarding historic motions of tectonic plates (including the Australian continent). This furthers understanding of the current and past state of stress in the Earth's surface, ultimately improving ways of characterizing earthquake hazard and mineral exploration. This project also benefits researchers interpre ....Planetary Pulsations: Exploring Links between Superplumes, Supercontinents, and Superchrons with 3-D Spherical Mantle Convection Models. This project advances the tools and knowledge base regarding historic motions of tectonic plates (including the Australian continent). This furthers understanding of the current and past state of stress in the Earth's surface, ultimately improving ways of characterizing earthquake hazard and mineral exploration. This project also benefits researchers interpreting the climate record as two processes which effected the ancient climate are investigated: major outbursts of greenhouse gases during periods of major volcanism and the reorientation of the planet with respect to its spin axis. The results are obtained with these computer simulations highlight Australia's emerging strength in supercomputing on the international scene.
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Micromechanical modelling of fault gouge dynamics: towards an improved fault constitutive relation. The human and economic costs of geological and other particulate media related problems in Australia are staggering. These include geological hazards (e.g. landslides and earthquakes; the Newcastle earthquake cost around $4 billion and 13 lives), to particulate processes prevalent in Australia's major export industries (e.g. coal export valued at $9.3 billion, iron ore at $3.8 billion, and wheat ....Micromechanical modelling of fault gouge dynamics: towards an improved fault constitutive relation. The human and economic costs of geological and other particulate media related problems in Australia are staggering. These include geological hazards (e.g. landslides and earthquakes; the Newcastle earthquake cost around $4 billion and 13 lives), to particulate processes prevalent in Australia's major export industries (e.g. coal export valued at $9.3 billion, iron ore at $3.8 billion, and wheat at $3.4 billion), to Australia's 810,000 km granular paved road network that costs around $5.5 million per day to maintain. The program will deliver new knowledge and advanced analytical and predictive modelling tools capable of fuelling breakthroughs in earthquake forecasting research and industrial innovations.
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Understanding the deep driving forces of Earth’s large-scale topography through time. We propose to model the convection of Earth’s mantle linked to tectonic plate motions to unravel their combined influence on the evolution of topography over 550 million years. The project will lead to an understanding of the driving forces of large-scale topography in continental interiors and along their margins through geological time.
How Large Earthquakes Change Our Dynamically Deforming Planet. The project aims to understand the multiscale dynamics of interacting faults on a global scale using novel computer simulations with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The focus of the research is to investigate the two-way coupling that exists between cycles of great earthquakes on plate boundaries, the global stress field, deformation within the crust, and changes to the Earth's dynamic topography. This is an important, ....How Large Earthquakes Change Our Dynamically Deforming Planet. The project aims to understand the multiscale dynamics of interacting faults on a global scale using novel computer simulations with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The focus of the research is to investigate the two-way coupling that exists between cycles of great earthquakes on plate boundaries, the global stress field, deformation within the crust, and changes to the Earth's dynamic topography. This is an important, foundational question in the emerging field of decadal scale global geodynamics. The tools are intended to improve reference models used to study sea-level changes in response to global ice loss. They support better climate models and improved forward planning tools for at-risk coastal communities.Read moreRead less