From GPlates to BEM-Earth: Tectonic Reconstruction Data Mining and Geodynamic Simulations

The present day status of high resolution global geological and geophysical datasets poses a unique oportunity to build fine-scale dynamic models of the Earth's evolution. Using the power of the GPlates software, tectonic reconstructions of the last 200 million years of Earth's history are easily built, organized and queried. We present a framework that uses data mining techniques currently under development to extend GPlates capabilities to build and test geodynamic models adapted to our best knowledge of the kinematic, topographic and material features of the post-Triassic Earth. Numerical simulation of global plate-mantle interaction which in the past could not be coupled to small scale dynamics due to computational limitations is achieved by using the BEM-Earth software. The novel approach of BEM-Earth departs from the classical Finite Element methods by solving viscous flow with the Fast Multipole Boundary Element Method and using Multigrid Finite Differences to include advection-diffusion and non linear rheology effects. It uses 3D analytical solutions defined only in the surface of the regions of interest, thus reducing the dimensionality of the problem; and adaptive surface meshes that allows treating multi-scale systems taking full advantage of state of the art observational constraints. This framework opens the door to self-consistent study of geodynamic models and provides a way to gauge the unknown driving forces of tectonics including slab pull, ridge push or mantle drag in a dynamic fashion. Global lithospheric model from GPlates data (above) and forward numerical model of Nazca subduction (below)