Earth ID: 2970

Volumetric Visualization of the Convection-generated Stresses in Earth

Visualizations by Yang Cai Released on August 5, 2004

The fundamental problem of the deformation of the Earth involves stress conditions on the basis of the crust caused by the mantle convection. Based on decades of satellite gravity data, a harmonic analytical model of the convection flow has been developed at GSFC. The magnitudes and directions of the resultant stresses in the crust were obtained at 64,000 grid points for each of 18 layers from 150 km to 600 km under the Earth. In this project, we explored three dimensional volumetric visualization methods for the data. To overcome the typical volumetric visualization obstacles such as enormous amount of data and opacity of objects in the scene, we developed an interactive and transparent isosurface model to render the volumetric data. a) Animated isosurfaces of earth stress below Hawaii. The blue objects indicate the shape of the stress distribution and the yellow objects indicate the high stress areas. b) Interactive global earth stress. To view the model, please use the QuickTime Player (similarly, please select the QuickTime version of the movie). Hold the left button and drag the mouse horizontally to view areas on the earth at the same depth. Hold the left button and drag the mouse vertically to view the different layers of the stress distributions inside the earth, between 150 km to 600 km deep.

Animated isosurfaces of earth stress below Hawaii. The blue objects indicate the shape of the stress distribution and the yellow objects indicate the high stress areas.

Visualization Credits

Yang Cai (Carnegie Mellon University): Lead Animator
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Animator
Stuart A. Snodgrass (GST): Animator
Han-Shou Liu (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Jizhong Chen (unaffiliated): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, Patty Pun, Carnegie Mellon University and Jason Fung, Carnegie Mellon University.

Science Paper:
Han-Shou Liu, Ronald Kolenkiewicz, Jinling Li and Jizhong Chen, 'Satellite Detection of the Convection Generated Stresses in Earth,' Recent Research and Development in Geophysics, 5(2003): 117-137; Han-Shou Liu, Ronald Kolenkiewicz, Jizhong Chen, Jinling Li, Yang Cai and Clarence Wade, Jr.,'Satellite Seek Gravity Signals for Probing Seismotectonic Stresses in Earth,' to be published

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2970

Data Used:

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> Earth
SVS >> Earthquake
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Solid Earth >> Seismology
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Solid Earth >> Geodetics/Gravity >> Gravitational Field
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Solid Earth >> Tectonics >> Stress
GCMD >> Location >> Hawaii
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Seismic Activity
SVS >> Physical Geography
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0