Video: Imaging the Earth’s Interior with the Summit Supercomputer

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In this video, Jeroen Tromp from Princeton University describes how GPUs power 3D wave simulations that help researchers better understand the earth’s interior. The Department of Geosciences at Princeton University is using the #1 Summit supercomputer, powered by NVIDIA Volta GPUs, to observe and simulate seismic data, imaging the Earth’s interior on a global scale.

The Theoretical & Computational Seismology Research Group is focused on imaging Earth’s interior. One of their missions is to develop and maintain open-source software for simulations of acoustic, (an)elastic and poroelastic wave propagation. The research group is currently addressing imaging problems in exploration geophysics, regional and global seismology, and helioseismology. Members work on various theoretical, computational and observational aspects of forward and inverse problems in seismology. We always welcome applications from potential graduate students and postdocs.

Jeroen Tromp joined the Department of Geosciences in July 2008 as Blair Professor of Geology and Professor of Applied & Computational Mathematics. He comes from the California Institute of Technology, where he was the Director of the Seismological Laboratory and McMillan Professor of Geophysics. From 1992 to 2000, he was a faculty member of the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. His Ph.D. (1992) and M.S. (1990) in Geophysics are from Princeton University, and he received his B.Sc. (1988) in Geophysics from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, of which he is a native.

Tromp’s primary research areas are in Theoretical & Computational Seismology. Research topics include: surface waves, free oscillations, body waves, seismic tomography, numerical simulations of 3-D wave propagation, and seismic hazard assessment. In collaboration with the late Princeton Geosciences faculty member Tony Dahlen he published the book Theoretical Global Seismology.

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