Articles | Volume 19, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1455-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
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the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1455-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Model evaluation paper
| 
19 Feb 2026
Model evaluation paper |
| 19 Feb 2026
| 19 Feb 2026
Highly scalable geodynamic simulations with HyTeG
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Munich, Germany
Nils Kohl
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Munich, Germany
Marcus Mohr
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Munich, Germany
Related authors
Fabian Böhm, Nils Kohl, Ponsuganth Ilangovan, Gabriel Robl, Fatemeh Rezaei, Marcus Mohr, Bernhard Schuberth, Harald Köstler, Hans-Peter Bunge, and Ulrich Rüde
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5839, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5839, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Short summary
Earth's mantle flows slowly like hot wax, moving continents and shaping the planet's surface. Computer models of this flow have long been too coarse to capture its fine structures, because representing the 3000-kilometre-thick mantle around the planet is enormously demanding. We built TERRA-NG, a simulation code designed for the graphics processors of today's fastest supercomputers. It resolves the whole mantle to about one kilometre in seconds per step, aiming to make such simulations routine.
Fabian Böhm, Nils Kohl, Ponsuganth Ilangovan, Gabriel Robl, Fatemeh Rezaei, Marcus Mohr, Bernhard Schuberth, Harald Köstler, Hans-Peter Bunge, and Ulrich Rüde
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5839, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5839, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Short summary
Earth's mantle flows slowly like hot wax, moving continents and shaping the planet's surface. Computer models of this flow have long been too coarse to capture its fine structures, because representing the 3000-kilometre-thick mantle around the planet is enormously demanding. We built TERRA-NG, a simulation code designed for the graphics processors of today's fastest supercomputers. It resolves the whole mantle to about one kilometre in seconds per step, aiming to make such simulations routine.
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Short summary
Geophysically accurate model of mantle convection requires a mesh with a width on the order of ~1 km. Traditional codes represent the systems of equation by setting up the associated matrix. However, at the scales we want to operate, even forming this matrix is hardly possible. Thus, we use the matrix-free framework HyTeG to create the geophysical model and verify it with numerical experiments while assessing the scalability of the framework and laying out the difficulties involved.
Geophysically accurate model of mantle convection requires a mesh with a width on the order of...
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