Kidus

Teshome

Subduction zones are the locus of an incredible amount of geologic activity, including earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building, and tsunami generation. As the forces and temporal and spatial scales involved in these processes are so massive, computational models are essential tools to understand long-term subduction zone evolution.

These tools have, however, traditionally remained primarily accessible to modeling experts, yet recent advances in numerical software libraries mean that such geodynamic models can now be designed with a much broader audience in mind. The goal of this project is to develop a computational model of the thermal evolution of a subduction zone and make it as accessible as possible to the community.

Kidus will receive training in the underlying equations and numerical discretizations related to the project. He will also gain experience with cutting-edge software packages and development methods as well as have the opportunity to release a tool likely to garner significant interest from the community.