InteractiveGeodynamics.jl

This package provides a range of graphical user interfaces (GUI's) to study and experiment with different geodynamic problems without need to program. It uses julia and Dash and automatically installs the required geodynamic software (such as LaMEM) in the background. This is particularly useful as part of teaching.

Getting started/requirements

In order to use this, you do need to install some software on your machine. Please follow these steps if you haven't done this yet:

1. Install Julia, which is a modern, high-level, scientific computer language that is open source, fast, and has a nice package manager. Please just download the precompiled binaries from their webpage.
2. Install VSCode by downloading the available binaries from the webpage.
3. Download InteractiveGeodynamics.jl to a directory of your choice on your machine by either: a) Using git clone https://github.com/JuliaGeodynamics/InteractiveGeodynamics.jl.git (if you have git available in your terminal) b) Or by going to the green <> Code button on the webpage and choosing the Download ZIP option (unzip it to a directory of your choice once it is downloaded)
4. Start julia by double-clicking the downloaded julia binary or by typing julia in your terminal . This will start the julia REPL( see https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/REPL/ for different modes):

kausb$ julia
               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "?" for help, "]?" for Pkg help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 1.8.5 (2023-01-08)
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Official https://julialang.org/ release
|__/                   |

julia>

5. Type ; to change to the shell mode. With backspace you can always get back to the REPL

shell>

Let's assume that we downloaded InteractiveGeodynamics.jl to the directory /Users/kausb/Downloads/InteractiveGeodynamics.jl and that we want to run the example in RayleighBenardConvection:

On linux/mac this is done with:

shell>cd /Users/kausb/Downloads/InteractiveGeodynamics.jl/RayleighBenardConvection

On the windows powershell (accessible through VSCode) this can be done with:

PS> cd C:\Users\boris\julia\dev\InteractiveGeodynamics.jl

(Note that the directory will likely be different on your machine, so please adapt that) Return to the REPL with the backspace.

6. Go to the package manager by pressing ].

julia>]
(@v1.9) pkg>

Then activate the package by typing activate ../. and hitting return:

(@v1.9) pkg> activate ../.
  Activating project at `~/Downloads/InteractiveGeodynamics.jl`
(@v1.9) pkg> instantiate

After that, type instantiate which will download the required packages you need. This can take some time the first time you do this.

(@v1.9) pkg> instantiate

Now return to the REPL by pressing backspace.

julia>

7. Start the GUI:

julia> include("Convection_Dash.jl")
[ Info: Listening on: 127.0.0.1:8050, thread id: 1

It will take a bit of time (to precompile/download all required packages) but it will start a GUI. After pushing Run, you'll get something that looks like this:

julia> 
Timestep 0
args = -nstep_max 250 -eta_fk[0] 1.0e21  -gamma_fk[0] 0.001 -TRef_fk[0] 1000.0 -ch[0] 5.0e8 -nel_x 128 -nel_z 64 -coord_x -1000.0,1000.0 -coord_z -1000,0 -coord_y -7.8125,7.8125 -temp_bot 2000
Timestep 1
Timestep 10
Timestep 15
Timestep 15
Timestep 20
Timestep 25
Timestep 30

Running the examples

Running the other examples is reasonably straightforward. Every directory contains a julia file, so change to that directory and run the julia file with include("NAME_Dash.jl"). For example, the Rayleigh-Taylor example can be started with:

shell>cd RayleighTaylorInstability/
julia> include("RTI_Dash.jl")
[ Info: Listening on: 127.0.0.1:8050, thread id: 1
Tiestep 0
args = -nstep_max 50 -eta[0] 1.0e21 -eta[1] 1.0e21 -eta[2] 1.0e20 -rho[0] 2800 -rho[1] 2800 -rho[2] 2200 -open_top_bound 0 -nel_x 32 -nel_z 16 -coord_x -5.0,5.0 
Timestep 1
Timestep 5
Timestep 10
Timestep 15
Timestep 20
Timestep 25