Open source and easy to use geodynamic modelling tools

Abstract

Geodynamic modelling is typically an activity restricted to a small number of well-trained expert geophysicists. This is not only because the physics of earth deformation processes and its implementation in modelling codes is complex, but also because geodynamic modelling software is generally not well-documented and hard to use, as a myriad of input/output parameters and boundary conditions need to be defined. These shortcomings also preclude the use of such software as a teaching tool. We have created a graphical user interface (GUI) and documentation for two-dimensional simulations of lithospheric deformation and mantle convection, based on the open-source Ellipsis particle-in-cell finite element code to address the above shortcomings. The GUI and its associated documentation allow novice users to assemble a 2D numerical experiment for lithospheric extension and/or compression over a convecting mantle or simply run a mantle convection experiment with or without continents in a relatively short time, including the scaling of relevant parameters. The source code for the GUI as well as Ellipsis have been released under the gnu public licence, and are available for download at www.geosci.usyd.edu.au/resources/code. Ellipsis can currently be compiled and run2 under any Unix based operating system and also Windows operating systems (using Cygwin) while the GUI will run on any platform for which Java 1.4.2 or higher is available. We hope that the combination of Ellipsis and this GUI will help bring geodynamic modelling to geologists' desktops, including resource explorers.