Plate tectonics is the most important geological process on Earth, shaping its surface, and making it unique among the planets in the Solar System. Yet, how plate tectonics emerged on Earth, which tectonic regime was before and which factors controlled evolution of plate tectonics in the Earth history remain controversial. We address these questions in the framework of the ERC Synergy Grant Project MEET (Monitoring of Earth Evolution through Time) using numerical modeling to test various geodynamic hypotheses with new geochemical data.

The Earth's mantle behaves like a very viscous liquid over extended geological periods. Cold earth plates sink from the surface to the core-mantle boundary, and hot material rises from there in the form of mantle plumes and as large-scale upwellings. By numerical modeling with different observation data, in particular from seismology, geodesy and mineral physics as boundary conditions, we try to better understand processes in the Earth's interior. In particular, we investigate the following topics:

Tsunami research at GFZ is dated back to the Great December 2004 Sumatra earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami that collected more than 230,000 death toll and triggered numerous worldwide initiatives to increase society preparedness and resilience against tsunamis. In 2005 GFZ took a leadership position in the consortium of German institutions aiming to build, in cooperation with Indonesian partners, a new generation Tsunami Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean – GITEWS. Several GFZ Sections were involved into this process, including Section 2.5 “Geodynamic Modeling” whose activity was dedicated to the modeling aspects of the GITEWS. Since that time, Section 2.5, through its Working Group “Tsunami Hazard Assessment and Early Warning”, has participated in international efforts on different stages of the tsunami risk governance cycle: from understanding and evaluating the hazard to early warning and capacity building.