A Bayesian level set method for identifying subsurface geometries and rheological properties in Stokes flow
- Creators
- Holbach, Lukas
- Gurnis, Michael
- Stadler, Georg
Abstract
We aim to simultaneously infer the shape of subsurface structures and material properties such as density or viscosity from surface observations. Modelling mantle flow using incompressible instantaneous Stokes equations, the problem is formulated as an infinite-dimensional Bayesian inverse problem. Subsurface structures are described as level sets of a smooth auxiliary function, allowing for geometric flexibility. As inverting for subsurface structures from surface observations is inherently challenging, knowledge of plate geometries from seismic images is incorporated into the prior probability distributions. The posterior distribution is approximated using a dimension-robust Markov-chain Monte Carlo sampling method, allowing quantification of uncertainties in inferred parameters and shapes. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated in two numerical examples with synthetic data. In a model with two higher-density sinkers, their shape and location are inferred with moderate uncertainty, but a trade-off between sinker size and density is found. The uncertainty in the inferred is significantly reduced by combining horizontal surface velocities and normal traction data. For a more realistic subduction problem, we construct tailored level-set priors, representing "seismic" knowledge and infer subducting plate geometry with their uncertainty. A trade-off between thickness and viscosity of the plate in the hinge zone is found, consistent with earlier work.
Additional Information
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). The authors would like to acknowledge helpful discussions with Matthew Dunlop and thank Gaël Choblet as well as Jack Muir for their valuable and insightful reviews. The work of LH was supported by the Fulbright Foreign Student Program. MG was supported by the National Science Foundation through OCE-2049086. Data Availability: The authors declare that all other data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its supplementary material files. The code used for the forward models and the inference is available upon request.Attached Files
Published - ggad220.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 122198
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230710-599244800.8
- Fulbright Foundation
- OCE-2049086
- NSF
- Created
-
2023-07-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-07-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Seismological Laboratory