anima-nfr
NFR funded - Young Talent Project 2021-2025

ANIMA - ANIsotropic viscosity in MAntle dynamics

Hosted by the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics at the University of Oslo

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Latest News: EGU GA 2023

Vienna, Austria (2023. April 24-28)


The EGU GA has taken place in April this year. The highlight of the conference was Ági's award lecture together with August Love Medal winner Thorsten Becker on Monday evening. PI of ANIMA, Ági received the Geodynamics Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award in 2023. She delivered a lecture on her "Journey from subduction zone interaction to anisotropic viscosity."

On Tuesday, the ANisotropy from Crust to Core session took place, where Yijun presented her poster on the Effect of  olivine anisotropic viscosity in advancing and retreating subduction settings. The poster received good attention, and we had inspiring conversations about the study.


Project objectives

Our primary goal is to evaluate the importance of anisotropic viscosity and olivine texture development for multi-scale geodynamic processes.

Secondary objectives:

  • Implementing anisotropic viscosity and texture development within a 3D mantle flow model.

  • Understanding how anisotropic viscosity and olivine texture interact to affect plate motions.

  • Constraining anisotropic viscosity for subduction, and relate this to seismic anisotropy observations.

  • Determining how frozen anisotropy in the lithosphere affects subduction initiation and slab deformation.

Project Partners

Project Manager

Dr. Ágnes Király

Ági is an early career researcher in the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics at theUniversity of Oslo. Her research focuses on viscous anisotropy in the upper mantle, and on slab-interactions in the Central-Mediterranean area.

Project Ph.D. Student

Yijun Wang

Yijun is a Ph.D. student, studying the role of anisotropic viscosity on subduction dynamics. She started her project with ANIMA in September 2021. She moved to Oslo from Helsinki, Finnland, where she did her Master studies.

Project Partner

Prof. Clint Conrad

Clint is a professor of Geodynamics, and the Earth Modelling team's leader in CEED, at the University of Oslo. His research is directed toward gaining a better understanding of Earth's dynamic interior.

Project Partner

A.prof. Lars Hansen

Lars is an Associate Professor of Rock and Mineral Physics in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Lars is using laboratory methods to understand the rheological behaviour of rocks at high temperature and pressure conditions.

Project Partner

A.Prof. Juliane Dannberg

Juliane is an Assistant Professor of Geodynamics in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is a principal developer of ASPECT, a free Geodynamics modelling software. Her research focuses on melt migration in the deep interior of the Earth.

Project Partner

A.Prof. Rene Gassmoeller

Rene is an Assistant Professor of Geodynamics in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is a principal developer of ASPECT. His focus is on implementing better and more efficient models for the physical processes that occur in rocks on Earth.

Project Partner

Dr. Menno Fraters

Menno is a research associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He is a principal developer of ASPECT. His research focuses on anisotropic texture development in subduction zones and on software development.