SEISSOL - Seismic Wave Propagation Solutions for Realistic 3D Media

Research on the interior structure of the earth and its geophysical properties are mainly based on results of seismology. Today, computer simulations of the propagation of seismic waves represent an invaluable tool for the understanding of the wave phenomena, their generation and their consequences. However, the simulation of a complete, highly accurate wave field in realistic media with complex geometry and geological rheologies is still a great challenge. Therefore, the aim of the proposed project is the improvement and intensive application of the highly accurate and powerful simulation code SEISSOL in order to provide simulations of realistic earthquake scenarios. The code is able to incorporate complex geological models and accounts for a variety of geophysical processes affecting seismic wave propagation, such as strong material heterogeneities, viscoelastic attenuation and anisotropy.

Grid properties/requirements:

• massively parallel high performance computing

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Rapid determination of Earthquake centroid moment tensor

The goal of this application is to provide first order informations on seismic source for large Earthquakes occurring worldwide. These informations are: the centroid, which corresponds to the location of the space-time barycenter of the rupture; the first moments of the rupture in the point-source approximation, which are the scalar moment giving the seismic energy released (from which the moment magnitude is deduced), the source duration, and the moment tensor that describes the global mechanism of the source (from which is deduced the orientation of the rupture plane and the kind of displacement on this plane).

Grid properties/requirements:

• Processing intensive: batch
• Operational needs: job on alert

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SPECFEM3D - Numerical simulation of earthquakes
in complex 3D geological models

The spectral-element method (SEM) is used for regional scale seismic wave propagation problems to model wave propagation at high frequencies and for complex geological structures. Simulations based upon a detailed sedimentary basin model and this accurate numerical technique produce generally nice waveform fits between the data and 3-D synthetic seismograms. Moreover, remaining discrepancies between the data and synthetic seismograms could ultimately be utilized to improve the velocity model based upon a structural inversion, or the source parameters based upon a centroid moment-tensor (CMT) inversion.
It also runs on the OnDemand system (see related news below).

Grid properties/requirements:

• Processing intensive: MPI/f90 .
• Large user community: several dozen research groups around the world although not yet through EGEE.
• Licence needs (licence agreement for SpecFem3D).

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Related news: Supercomputing OnDemand >>

Cellular automaton for geomorphological research

Landslides, mountain erosion or dynamic of dunes are natural disasters which can cause serious damages in terms of lives lost, homes destroyed, economies disrupted. By understanding how and where these natural events occur, we can respond effectively when disasters strike. The simulation of landslide hazards is particularly relevant for the prevention of natural disasters, since it enables to compute risk maps and helps to design protection works.

This application concentrates on the formation and evolution of landscapes using a discrete model of transport. This model is a 3D cellular automaton (CA) in which different sets of next-neighbour interactions allow to distinguish between different types of physical processes (e.g. erosion, deposition, transport). Such an innovation is necessary to implement retroaction mechanisms between a topography and a flow. Extended computational resources are required to perform relevant simulations.

Grid properties/requirements:

• cpu and memory intensive consumming

More about Cellular Automaton (in french) >>

Geocluster: Seismic processing generic platform

Geocluster is the standard processing software used by Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG) for its business and also by several Research Institutes across the world, in both industrial R&D and academic environments such as Lausanne UNIL (CH), University Watt (UK), Khantymansiysk Yugra (Russia), Trondheim University (Norway), and several in France (CNRS/INSU, IFP, Ifremer, etc.). Geocluster covers all the steps from data-preconditioning, first arrival picking, refraction statics, signal processing, velocity analysis, dip move out and migration, and include the state of the art geophysical algorithms for seismic processing. Researchers have the possibility to develop their own modules (Fortran 90) and to use them in any workflow.
This application is a batch, mono cpu process but can also trigger parallel algorithms as standalones. Main issues concerning the grid version are currently on the management of the environment: a "job" is a set of input and output seismic data, binary executables, parameter files, scripts and log information. All these components may go through various grid nodes (e.g. seismic data from a database node, software from a "service provider" node, parameter/results from/to user node and the computing on standard working nodes).

Grid properties/requirements:

• Licence server
• Large storage space
• Large network bandwidth (between sites and internal network)
• Processing intensive : batch, MPI
• Fault tolerance system for central server (LFC,GGS,VOMS)
• Interactive access

More about the EGEODE VO >>

More about CGGVERITAS >>

Mt. Etna Volcano Sonification

Data sonification experiments have been carried on by the Musica Inaudita sound laboratory of the University of Salerno (Italy), in collaboration with the Catania INFN Section and the TRAC (Technologies and Research for Contemporary Arts) project. Sonified data (provided by the INGV) were geophysical data collected by a digital seismograph placed on the Etna volcano in Catania (Italy).

More about the Volcano Sonification >>