Maxwell: 4D Viscoelastic Crustal Deformation Modeling Code

Exploration of earthquake scenarios that span several thousand years, and deform over an equal number of kilometers, requires models that are three-dimensional, time-dependent, and computationally efficient. My groupʻs research focuses on the development, verification, & application of a semi-analytical Fourier model describing the 3D response of both elastic and viscoelastic mediums to a distribution of body forces. Using Fourier analysis, the horizontal complexity of a given fault system has no effect on the speed of the computation; likewise, because the solution is analytic in time, no numerical time stepping is required. This approach allows for rapid computer model calculations that are over 20 times faster than previous methods (e.g., finite element methods). A single time-step for a mesh of 2048 by 2048 horizontal grid cells, containing over 400 fault patches, requires only 40 seconds of CPU time on a personal computer. Multiple time steps, including hundreds of years of earthquake history, can be computed in a matter of hours.