Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL) version 1.1: Recent developments to incorporate 3D geological maps and thermal modelling using the Underworld software

Abstract

One of the major impediments to the successful development of Australia's geothermal energy resources is uncertainty around the temperature distribution in the crust. Although significant in number, the coverage of temperature measurements from wells is unevenly distributed across the continent. To overcome this impediment, thermal modelling applied to 3D geological maps is a means of predicting temperature distribution between and beneath measurement points. Underworld is a parallel, 3D geodynamic modelling code which can be used to model the temperature distribution in 3D (Quenette and Moresi, 2010). Despite its scalability and the fact that it is open-source, its uptake to date has been limited by the fact that it is not easily usable by non-specialists. In particular, the process of converting 3D geological maps and physical property data to a format that can be numerically analysed in Underworld is not straightforward. As part of a NeCTAR funded project, Geoscience Australia is working with Monash University, CSIRO, and the National Computing Infrastructure (NCI) at the ANU, to develop tools to streamline the process of importing a 3D map to Underworld, running a model and exporting the results for analysis and visualisation. The project will incorporate Underworld into the Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL), an environment which enables geoscientists to store, discover, retrieve and process datasets. The goals of the project are: 1. With Monash University, develop code that allows Gocad® format 3D maps to be imported to Underworld. 2. Incorporate the 3D geological maps, and Underworld, into VGL to provide an interface for both discovering and selecting 3D maps, and importing and running them in Underworld. References Quenette S., & Moresi L. 2010. Models based experimentation: numerical modelling of 3D basin scale architecture heat & fluid flow. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts