Videos made with ASPECT

Many simulations made with ASPECT can be visualized beautifully to provide insight into the structure of the solution or to illuminate a particular angle of what has been computed. Below are links to a few of these videos.

Information about what each of the videos shows can generally be obtained by clicking on the title shown at the top. Also click on the title to get to a place where you can select a larger view.

An ASPECT geodynamic model coupled to a LandLab surface evolution model. The ASPECT model prescribes two sources of melt which rotate in a circle, forming plumes (red contours) which rise upwards due to buoyancy forces. The melt reaches a depth of extraction (transparent white plane), where it is removed from the ASPECT model.
The volume of melt extracted from ASPECT is computed and is sent to the Landlab model where it is routed across the surface using a Bingham visco-plastic rheology, building a volcano. The yellow surface imposed on the Landlab topography shows where lava is being vented onto the surface.
Simulation by Daniel Douglas. Animation created as part of the NSF project Collaborative Research: Frameworks: Coupling bulk and surface processes in simulating the solid earth with ASPECT and LandLab.

A single timestep of a global mantle convection simulation with ASPECT. The simulation covers 1 billion years with about 125 million unknowns with plate motion history applied on the surface.

Simulation by Juliane Dannberg and Rene Gassmoeller. Animation created as part of the NSF project Integrated Geodynamic Earth Models by Timo Heister. An interactive version is available online as well.

A model of an oceanic plate subducting under a craton, using a highly nonlinear material model.

Simulation by Menno Fraters (Utrecht University). Visualization by Wolfgang Bangerth (Colorado State University). For details, click on the video title.

Convection in a spherical shell, simulating convection in the mantle of Mars. The simulation corresponds to roughly the first 750 million years of Mars's history.

Simulation by Siqi Zhang (Macquarie University). For details, click on the video title.