Geodynamics - Home
Computational Infrastructure
for Geodynamics (CIG)
Community-driven organization advancing Earth science by providing the infrastructure for the development and dissemination of software for geophysics and related fields.
Webinar
Exploring Thermodynamic Computational Models in Geodynamics
May 11, 8A-noon PDT •
more info
2026 Crustal Deformation Workshop
2026 Rayleigh Hackathon
Travel Support
Travel support is available:
2026 Ada Lovelace Workshop
Research Highlight
Conceptual illustration of the Integrating Geodynamics with Thermodynamics using Machine Learning (IGyTheM) framework. Thermodynamic information is predicted by machine-learning models trained on extensive thermodynamic calculations. In this framework, machine learning serves as a fast surrogate for computationally expensive thermodynamic solvers, enabling thermodynamic properties (e.g., density, entropy, and seismic velocities) to be coupled self-consistently with mantle convection models during numerical simulations.
IGyTheM: Integrating Geodynamics with Thermodynamics using Machine learning
To achieve a comprehensive understanding of mantle convection, it is essential to develop models that incorporate the complex interactions between chemical structures and mantle dynamics. However, incorporating thermodynamic calculations in a self-consistent and computationally efficient manner remains a major challenge in computational geodynamics. Two conventional approaches are commonly used to couple geodynamic models with thermodynamic properties. The first relies on pre-computed lookup tables derived from thermodynamic calculations at fixed bulk compositions (e.g., Li et al., 2025; Rummel et al., 2020), which limits compositional flexibility and resolution. The second approach performs thermodynamic calculations on-the-fly during geodynamic simulations(e.g., Hebert et al., 2009), providing greater physical consistency but at a computational cost that is often prohibitive, including approaches based on parallelized, parameterized thermodynamic calculations (e.g., Riel et al., 2022; Wong & Keller, 2023).
Here, we present a new, flexible, general, and computationally efficient framework for coupling convection models with thermodynamics, termed Integrating Geodynamics with Thermodynamics using Machine Learning (IGyTheM, Fig. 1) (Yuan et al., 2025). Assuming ...
full article
].
Contributed by:
Qian Yuan,
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
; Paul D. Asimow, Michael Gurnis, Paula Antoshechkina, Junjie Dong,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Check out all
Research Highlights
What Is happening?
2026 Thermodynamics and its Application in Geodynamic Models
Learn about leading mineral physics codes and their applications to geodynamics.
info
webinar
2025-2026 Webinar Series
May 11, 2026
Thermodynamics and its Application in Geodynamic Models
Incorporating thermodynamic reactions in geodynamic models is fundamental in modeling mantle ...
more info
Updated 6 March 2026
workshop
2026 Crustal Deformation Modeling Workshop
June 8-12, 2026
2 days of PyLith tutorials and 3 days of science talks & discussion on computational models addressing crustal deformation.
more info
Updated 25 March 2026
hackathon
2026 Rayleigh Hackathon
July 11-18, 2026
Users will work together to implement features into Rayleigh and improve/debug existing functionality and documentation.
more info
apply
Updated 25 March 2026
hackathon
2026 ASPECT Hackathon
July 20-31, 2026
Join us to further the development of the mantle convection code ASPECT and its user community.
more info
apply
Updated 25 March 2026
See the events calendar
Get the Tools
PyLith v4.2.1
PyLith 4.2 adds several new examples, a utility for visualizing PyLith output, improved preconditioners for elasticity and poroelasticity, and many bugfixes. See the release notes.
Finite element parallel code to simulate problems in thermal convection in both 2D and 3D models.
Current release: 2024-12-10
GNU GPL v2 or newer license
A set of codes for MHD dynamo simulation in a rotating spherical shell using spherical harmonics expansion methods.
Current release: 2017-07-17
GNU GPL v2 or newer license
Finite-element code for dynamic and quasistatic simulations of crustal deformation, primarily earthquakes. and volcanoes
Current release: 2025-08-22
MIT license
A 3-D convection code designed for the study of dynamo behavior in spherical shell geometry.
Current release: 2022-05-05
GNU GPL v3 or newer license
Simulates global v8.1.0 and regional v4.0.0 (continental-scale) seismic wave propagation
Current release: 2023-12-20
GNU GPL v3 or newer license
3-D seismic modeling, with a free surface condition on the top boundary, absorbing super-grid conditions on the far-field boundaries, and an arbitrary number of point force and/or point moment tensor source terms.
Current release: 2023-08-30
GNU GPL v2 or newer license
AxiSEM
BurnMan
CitcomS
ConMan
Flexwin
Geodynamic World Builder
ModEM
SPECFEM3D Cartesian
Find out more about contributing software to the community.
CIG on
Zenodo
More Info >
Discover more software
Join our forum
to receive announcements and be part of community discussions. The forum has replaced our mailing lists.