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Tromp, Jeroen

Publications and source records attributed to Tromp, Jeroen.

GLAD-M35: a joint P and S global tomographic model with uncertainty quantification

We present our third and final generation joint P and S global adjoint tomography (GLAD) model, GLAD-M35, and quantify its uncertainty based on a low-rank approximation of the inverse Hessian. Starting from our second-generation model, GLAD-M25, we added 680 new earthquakes to the database for a total of 2160 events. New P-wave categories are included to compensate for the imbalance between P- and S-wave measurements, and we enhanced the window selection algorithm to include more major-arc phases, providing better constraints on the structure of the deep mantle and more than doubling the number of measurement windows to 40 million. Two stages of a Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) quasi-Newton inversion were performed, each comprising five iterations. With this BFGS update history, we determine the model’s standard deviation and resolution length through randomized singular value decomposition.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Seismic Tomography 2024

Seismic tomography is the most abundant source of information about the internal structure of the Earth at scales ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers. It constrains the properties of active volcanoes, earthquake fault zones, deep reservoirs and storage sites, glaciers and ice sheets, or the entire globe. It contributes to outstanding societal problems related to natural hazards, resource exploration, underground storage, and many more. The recent advances in seismic tomography are being translated to nondestructive testing, medical ultrasound, and helioseismology. Nearly 50 yr after its first successful applications, this article offers a snapshot of modern seismic tomography. Focused on major challenges and particularly promising research directions, it is intended to guide both Earth science professionals and early-career scientists. The individual contributions by the coauthors provide diverse perspectives on topics that may at first seem disconnected but are closely tied together by a few coherent threads: multiparameter inversion for properties related to dynamic processes, data quality, and geographic coverage, uncertainty quantification that is useful for geologic interpretation, new formulations of tomographic inverse problems that address concrete geologic questions more directly, and the presentation and quantitative comparison of tomographic models. Finally, it remains to be seen which of these problems will be considered solved, solved to some extent, or practically unsolvable over the next decade.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Ab initio calculations of third-order elastic coefficients

Third-order elasticity (TOE) theory predicts strain-induced changes in second-order elastic coefficients (SOECs) and can model elastic wave propagation in stressed media. Although third-order elastic tensors have been determined based on first principles in previous studies, their current definition is based on an expansion of thermodynamic energy in terms of the Lagrangian strain near the natural, or zero pressure, reference state. This definition is inconvenient for predictions of SOECs under significant initial stresses. Therefore, when TOE theory is necessary to study the strain dependence of elasticity, the seismological community has resorted to an empirical version of the theory. This study reviews the thermodynamic definition of the third-order elastic tensor and proposes using an “effective” third-order elastic tensor. An explicit expression for the effective third-order elastic tensor is given and verified. Additionally, we extend the ab initio approach to calculate third-order elastic tensors under finite pressure and apply it to two cubic systems, namely, NaCl and MgO. As applications and validations, we evaluate (a) strain-induced changes in SOECs and (b) pressure derivatives of SOECs based on ab initio calculations. Good agreement between third-order elasticity-based predictions and numerically calculated values confirms the validity of our theory.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Global adjoint tomography—model GLAD-M25

SUMMARY Building on global adjoint tomography model GLAD-M15, we present transversely isotropic global model GLAD-M25, which is the result of 10 quasi-Newton tomographic iterations with an earthquake database consisting of 1480 events in the magnitude range 5.5 ≤ Mw ≤ 7.2, an almost sixfold increase over the first-generation model. We calculated fully 3-D synthetic seismograms with a shortest period of 17 s based on a GPU-accelerated spectral-element wave propagation solver which accommodates effects due to 3-D anelastic crust and mantle structure, topography and bathymetry, the ocean load, ellipticity, rotation and self-gravitation. We used an adjoint-state method to calculate Fréchet derivatives in 3-D anelastic Earth models facilitated by a parsimonious storage algorithm. The simulations were performed on the Cray XK7 ‘Titan’ and the IBM Power 9 ‘Summit’ at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. We quantitatively evaluated GLAD-M25 by assessing misfit reductions and traveltime anomaly histograms in 12 measurement categories. We performed similar assessments for a held-out data set consisting of 360 earthquakes, with results comparable to the actual inversion. We highlight the new model for a variety of plumes and subduction zones.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Balancing unevenly distributed data in seismic tomography: a global adjoint tomography example

SUMMARY The uneven distribution of earthquakes and stations in seismic tomography leads to slower convergence of nonlinear inversions and spatial bias in inversion results. Including dense regional arrays, such as USArray or Hi-Net, in global tomography causes severe convergence and spatial bias problems, against which conventional pre-conditioning schemes are ineffective. To save computational cost and reduce model bias, we propose a new strategy based on a geographical weighting of sources and receivers. Unlike approaches based on ray density or the Voronoi tessellation, this method scales to large full-waveform inversion problems and avoids instabilities at the edges of dense receiver or source clusters. We validate our strategy using a 2-D global waveform inversion test and show that the new weighting scheme leads to a nearly twofold reduction in model error and much faster convergence relative to a conventionally pre-conditioned inversion. We implement this geographical weighting strategy for global adjoint tomography.

Ruan, Youyi↗

Harnessing the Power of Many: Extensible Toolkit for Scalable Ensemble Applications

Many scientific problems require multiple distinct computational tasks to be executed in order to achieve a desired solution. We introduce the Ensemble Toolkit (EnTK) to address the challenges of scale, diversity and reliability they pose. We describe the design and implementation of EnTK, characterize its performance and integrate it with two exemplar use cases: seismic inversion and adaptive analog ensembles. We perform nine experiments, characterizing EnTK overheads, strong and weak scalability, and the performance of the two use case imple-mentations, at scale and on production infrastructures. We show how EnTK meets the following general requirements: (i) imple-menting dedicated abstractions to support the description and execution of ensemble applications; (ii) support for execution on heterogeneous computing infrastructures; (iii) efficient scalability up to O(10 4 ) tasks; and (iv) task-level fault tolerance. We discuss novel computational capabilities that EnTK enables and the scientific advantages arising thereof. We propose EnTK as an important addition to the suite of tools in support of production scientific computing.

Computer Science↗

Simulations of Seismic Wave Propagation on Mars

In this paper, we present global and regional synthetic seismograms computed for 1D and 3D Mars models based on the spectral-element method. For global simulations, we implemented a radially-symmetric Mars model with a 110 km thick crust. For this 1D model, we successfully benchmarked the 3D seismic wave propagation solver SPECFEM3D_GLOBE against the 2D axisymmetric wave propagation solver AxiSEM at periods down to 10 s. We also present higher-resolution body-wave simulations with AxiSEM down to 1 s in a model with a more complex 1D crust, revealing wave propagation effects that would have been difficult to interpret based on ray theory. For 3D global simulations based on SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, we superimposed 3D crustal thickness variations capturing the distinct crustal dichotomy between Mars’ northern and southern hemispheres, as well as topography, ellipticity, gravity, and rotation. The global simulations clearly indicate that the 3D crust speeds up body waves compared to the reference 1D model, whereas it significantly changes surface waveforms and their dispersive character depending on its thickness. We also perform regional simulations with the solver SES3D based on 3D crustal models derived from surface composition, thereby addressing the effects of various distinct crustal features down to 2 s. The regional simulations confirm the strong effects of crustal variations on waveforms. Finally, we conclude that the numerical tools are ready for examining more scenarios, including various other seismic models and sources.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Pillars of the Mantle: Imaging the Interior of the Earth with Adjoint Tomography. In: PEARC17 Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2017 on Sustainability, Success and Impact, Article No. 75

In this work, we investigate global seismic tomographic models obtained by spectral-element simulations of seismic wave propagation and adjoint methods. Global crustal and mantle models are obtained based on an iterative conjugate-gradient type of optimization scheme. Forward and adjoint seismic wave propagation simulations, which result in synthetic seismic data to make measurements and data sensitivity kernels to compute gradient for model updates, respectively, are performed by the SPECFEM3D_GLOBE package [1] [2] at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) to study the structure of the Earth at unprecedented levels. Using advances in solver techniques that run on the GPUs on Titan at the OLCF, scientists are able to perform large-scale seismic inverse modeling and imaging. Using seismic data from global and regional networks from global CMT earthquakes, scientists are using SPECFEM3D_GLOBE to understand the structure of the mantle layer of the Earth. Visualization of the generated data sets provide an effective way to understand the computed wave perturbations which define the structure of mantle in the Earth.

Pugmire, David↗

Global adjoint tomography: first-generation model

We present the first-generation global tomographic model constructed based on adjoint tomography, an iterative full-waveform inversion technique. Synthetic seismograms were calculated using GPU-accelerated spectral-element simulations of global seismic wave propagation, accommodating effects due to 3-D anelastic crust & mantle structure, topography & bathymetry, the ocean load, ellipticity, rotation, and self-gravitation. Fréchet derivatives were calculated in 3-D anelastic models based on an adjoint-state method. The simulations were performed on the Cray XK7 named ‘Titan’, a computer with 18 688 GPU accelerators housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The transversely isotropic global model is the result of 15 tomographic iterations, which systematically reduced differences between observed and simulated three-component seismograms. Our starting model combined 3-D mantle model S362ANI with 3-D crustal model Crust2.0. We simultaneously inverted for structure in the crust and mantle, thereby eliminating the need for widely used ‘crustal corrections’. We used data from 253 earthquakes in the magnitude range 5.8 ≤ M w ≤ 7.0. We started inversions by combining ~30 s body-wave data with ~60 s surface-wave data. The shortest period of the surface waves was gradually decreased, and in the last three iterations we combined ~17 s body waves with ~45 s surface waves. We started using 180 min long seismograms after the 12th iteration and assimilated minor- and major-arc body and surface waves. The 15th iteration model features enhancements of well-known slabs, an enhanced image of the Samoa/Tahiti plume, as well as various other plumes and hotspots, such as Caroline, Galapagos, Yellowstone and Erebus. Furthermore, we see clear improvements in slab resolution along the Hellenic and Japan Arcs, as well as subduction along the East of Scotia Plate, which does not exist in the starting model. Point-spread function tests demonstrate that we are approaching the resolution of continental-scale studies in some areas, for example, underneath Yellowstone. Here, this is a consequence of our multiscale smoothing strategy in which we define our smoothing operator as a function of the approximate Hessian kernel, thereby smoothing gradients less wherever we have good ray coverage, such as underneath North America.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

An Adaptable Seismic Data Format

We present ASDF, the Adaptable Seismic Data Format, a modern and practical data format for all branches of seismology and beyond. The growing volume of freely available data coupled with ever expanding computational power opens avenues to tackle larger and more complex problems. Current bottlenecks include inefficient resource usage and insufficient data organization. Properly scaling a problem requires the resolution of both these challenges, and existing data formats are no longer up to the task. ASDF stores any number of synthetic, processed or unaltered waveforms in a single file. A key improvement compared to existing formats is the inclusion of comprehensive meta information, such as event or station information, in the same file. Additionally, it is also usable for any non-waveform data, for example, cross-correlations, adjoint sources or receiver functions. Last but not least, full provenance information can be stored alongside each item of data, thereby enhancing reproducibility and accountability. Any data set in our proposed format is self-describing and can be readily exchanged with others, facilitating collaboration. The utilization of the HDF5 container format grants efficient and parallel I/O operations, integrated compression algorithms and check sums to guard against data corruption. To not reinvent the wheel and to build upon past developments, we use existing standards like QuakeML, StationXML, W3C PROV and HDF5 wherever feasible. Usability and tool support are crucial for any new format to gain acceptance. We developed mature C/Fortran and Python based APIs coupling ASDF to the widely used SPECFEM3D_GLOBE and ObsPy toolkits.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Anelastic sensitivity kernels with parsimonious storage for adjoint tomography and full waveform inversion

We introduce a technique to compute exact anelastic sensitivity kernels in the time domain using parsimonious disk storage. The method is based on a reordering of the time loop of time-domain forward/adjoint wave propagation solvers combined with the use of a memory buffer. It avoids instabilities that occur when time-reversing dissipative wave propagation simulations. The total number of required time steps is unchanged compared to usual acoustic or elastic approaches. The cost is reduced by a factor of 4/3 compared to the case in which anelasticity is partially accounted for by accommodating the effects of physical dispersion. We validate our technique by performing a test in which we compare the Kα sensitivity kernel to the exact kernel obtained by saving the entire forward calculation. This benchmark confirms that our approach is also exact. We illustrate the importance of including full attenuation in the calculation of sensitivity kernels by showing significant differences with physical-dispersion-only kernels.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗

Full waveform inversion for time-distance helioseismology

Inferring interior properties of the Sun from photospheric measurements of the seismic wavefield constitutes the helioseismic inverse problem. Deviations in seismic measurements (such as wave travel times) from their fiducial values estimated for a given model of the solar interior imply that the model is inaccurate. Contemporary inversions in local helioseismology assume that properties of the solar interior are linearly related to measured travel-time deviations. It is widely known, however, that this assumption is invalid for sunspots and active regions and is likely for supergranular flows. Here, we introduce nonlinear optimization, executed iteratively, as a means of inverting for the subsurface structure of large-amplitude perturbations. Defining the penalty functional as the L {sub 2} norm of wave travel-time deviations, we compute the total misfit gradient of this functional with respect to the relevant model parameters at each iteration around the corresponding model. The model is successively improved using either steepest descent, conjugate gradient, or the quasi-Newton limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm. Performing nonlinear iterations requires privileging pixels (such as those in the near field of the scatterer), a practice that is not compliant with the standard assumption of translational invariance. Measurements for these inversions, although similar in principle to those used in time-distance helioseismology, require some retooling. For the sake of simplicity in illustrating the method, we consider a two-dimensional inverse problem with only a sound-speed perturbation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DETECTABLE SEISMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE INTERACTION OF A PRIMORDIAL BLACK HOLE WITH EARTH

Galaxies observed today are likely to have evolved from density perturbations in the early universe. Perturbations that exceeded some critical threshold are conjectured to have undergone gravitational collapse to form primordial black holes (PBHs) at a range of masses. Such PBHs serve as candidates for cold dark matter, and their detection would shed light on conditions in the early universe. Here, we propose a mechanism to search for transits of PBHs through/nearby Earth by studying the associated seismic waves. Using a spectral-element method, we simulate and visualize this seismic wave field in Earth's interior. We predict the emergence of two unique signatures, namely, a wave that would arrive almost simultaneously everywhere on Earth's free surface and the excitation of unusual spheroidal modes with a characteristic frequency spacing in free oscillation spectra. These qualitative characteristics are unaffected by the speed or proximity of the PBH trajectory. The seismic energy deposited by a proximal M{sup PBH} = 10{sup 15} g PBH is comparable to a magnitude M{sub w} = 4 earthquake. The non-seismic collateral damage due to the actual impact of such small PBHs with Earth would be negligible. Unfortunately, the expected collision rate is very low even if PBHs constituted all of dark matter, at {approx}10{sup -7} yr{sup -1}, and since the rate scales as 1/M{sup PBH}, fortunately encounters with larger, Earth-threatening PBHs are exceedingly unlikely. However, the rate at which non-colliding close encounters of PBHs could be detected by seismic activity alone is roughly two orders of magnitude larger-that is once every hundred thousand years-than the direct collision rate.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗