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Research Highlight
AxiSEM3D: efficient 3-D wave propagation across scales and worlds
AxiSEM3D is an open-source spectral-element solver for elastic and seismoacoustic wave propagation. Its central idea is to exploit the fact that seismic wavefields usually vary far more rapidly with depth than they do around a planet. Rather than discretize all three dimensions, AxiSEM3D couples a 2-D spectral-element method in the meridional (radius–depth) plane with a pseudospectral Fourier expansion in azimuth, so the cost of a simulation tracks the 3-D complexity of the wavefield rather than the size of a 3-D grid. The numerical mesh is therefore only two-dimensional (as shown in the above figure for the Sun); the third dimension, around the axis, is handled by the Fourier expansion. Conceived and principally developed by Kuangdai Leng (Leng et al. 2016, 2019), it extends the axisymmetric AxiSEM (Nissen-Meyer et al. 2007, 2008, 2014) to fully 3-D models with undulating discontinuities, and is now hosted and supported by the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG). [full article]
contributed by:
Jonathan Wolf
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
From HQ
Dear Community,
Summer began in April this year. The earlier than usual warm weather and early kickoff to the workshop season meant we have been busy for the last several months. Three hacks and two workshops later, we are almost all back home with the school year upon us and, hopefully, also cooler weather.
This summer has been a reminder of the journey CIG has been on over the past 20 years. We had a new community launch in April – AxiSEM3D (see above). We could not have done this without the experience we have gained working with the open source communities ASPECT, PyLith and Rayleigh. The impact of open source software and the science and careers it enables was evident at this year’s Ada Lovelace workshop when the top student posters were awarded to the CIG community through the use of software and/or researchers with deep ties to the community. Congratulations to Ranpeng Li, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany (ASPECT), Alan Yu, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany (ASPECT-Fastscape) and to Amita Anand (Georgia Tech).
These events provided opportunities to discuss science with you as well as issues surrounding open source software and their communities, the role of AI in software development, and leadership amongst many other fun topics and activities! We hope to have news on all these fronts for the community shortly.
For those teaching geodynamics this upcoming academic year, we have a new resource which includes computational examples for topics in geodynamics. Still in beta, but you can get a jump on the release by downloading the educational modules from our repository, Docker, or geodynamics.org. See the documentation. Next summer I hope to do less traveling to meet with you as the community meets in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the 2027 CIG Community Meeting July 26-29. Mark your calendars and look for more information in January 2027. If you are interested in organizing activities for this event, please contact me.Lorraine Hwang, Co Director
Governance
Speaker Series
Apply to Host a Speaker
The CIG Speaker Series seeks to promote computational modeling in geodynamics and related Earth science disciplines. The series aims to bring computational geodynamics speakers to institutions that may not otherwise have access to speakers with expertise in computational science or computational geophysics. By doing so, we aim to connect speakers and CIG with audiences from a variety of STEM domains, and to broaden participation in CIG and computational geodynamics. Institutions interested in hosting a Speaker in 2026-2027 should apply by August 31, 2026.This upcoming year features the following 2026-2027 CIG Distinguished Speakers:
- Slow and not steady: What can the spectrum of fault slip tell us about earthquake processes?, Asst. Prof. Kathryn Materna, University of Colorado, Boulder
- A tour of the deep Earth through geodynamic modeling Dr. Cian Wilson, Carnegie Science
Working Groups
CIG seeks to engage its community and encourage new ideas by seeking members interested in participating as a member of a current working Group or starting a new Focused Working Groups (FWG). New FWG's should address a specific topic and have a clearly defined scope e.g., workshop, white paper, benchmark, etc. A WG should define concrete outcome(s) achievable within a short time frame, < 2 years. Anyone can propose one! We look forward to your ideas in continuing the CIG community's dynamic leadership in the Earth sciences. [apply]Events
2027 CIG Community Meeting
Save the date for the 2027 CIG Community meeting. This meeting will be held July 26-29, 2027, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the El Dorado Hotel and Spa, just steps away from the Santa Fe Plaza. Let the Organizing Committee know what you are interested in learning about at this meeting.
In addition, if you are interested in organized activities around Santa Fe, consider joining the Activities Committee for this event. We need volunteers to make this happen!
contact usWorkshops and Meetings
2026| December 7-11 | AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA |
| July 26-29 | CIG Community Meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico |