Add initial topography from World Builder by Minerallo · Pull Request #7155 · geodynamics/aspect

Minerallo · 2026-07-26T15:56:59Z

Hi everyone,

Here is a plugin for the initial topography from World Builder. It allows ASPECT to read the initial surface topography directly from the same World Builder file used for temperature and composition.

ASPECT normally needs to know the lower and upper bounds of the model to build the geometry, such as the distance between the bottom and top of the model. Therefore, if we want to use initial topography, we also need to take into account the initial maximum topography when defining the “box” or sphere.

I opened a PR in GWB to retrieve the maximum topography automatically (GeodynamicWorldBuilder/WorldBuilder#945), but if this does not work, I provide a fallback option that allows the user to set it manually. It only needs to be a value greater than the expected topography of the model.

I also added box and spherical-shell tests.

@MFraters
Cheers,
Michael

For all pull requests:

I have followed the instructions for indenting my code.
I followed the AI Policy:
- Significant parts of this PR were written by AI (please add a sentence below).
  helped in replacing similar documentation/text in multiple files.
- AI has not been used in significant ways.

If yes, please describe your usage of AI models in the creation of this pull request

For new features/models or changes of existing features:

I have tested my new feature locally to ensure it is correct.
I have created a testcase for the new feature/benchmark in the tests/ directory.
I have added a changelog entry in the doc/modules/changes directory that will inform other users of my change.

MFraters

Thanks for working on this coupling. I will review it fully later, but I think it would make sense to add the functionality to the world builder in the contrib folder, and increase the version number to 1.1.1. I don't think having a "temporary" fallback parameter is the way to go.

Minerallo · 2026-07-28T11:56:11Z

Ready for review ! @MFraters :)

MFraters

Generally looks good to me, just a few small comments.

MFraters · 2026-07-28T14:08:08Z

                                  const Objects::NaturalCoordinate &position_in_natural_coordinates,
                                  double topography) const override final;

+            double maximum_topography() const override final;


Some of them you already have documentation, but could you also add documentation for the rest these new functions?

MFraters · 2026-07-28T14:14:10Z

+      AssertThrow(maximum_topography >= 0.0,
+                  ExcMessage("World Builder returned a negative maximum "
+                             "topography, but this value must be a "
+                             "nonnegative upper bound."));


isn't it non-negative?

why do you require a larger than 0 maximum topography? What if you make a model of the ocean part of a larger model (or Schiphol in the Netherlands, which is below 0)?

right lets remove that

MFraters · 2026-07-28T14:31:30Z

+
+namespace aspect
+{
+#ifdef ASPECT_WITH_WORLD_BUILDER


I think you should also check here whether the gwb version is larger than 1.1.1 with something like:
#if WORLD_BUILDER_VERSION_GTE(1,1,1)

gassmoeller · 2026-07-29T09:57:21Z

@MFraters is this ready?

@Minerallo you will have to rebase this one more time to trigger the tests.

Minerallo · 2026-07-29T12:35:42Z

Hi everyone,

Here is a plugin for the initial topography from World Builder. It allows ASPECT to read the initial surface topography directly from the same World Builder file used for temperature and composition.

ASPECT normally needs to know the lower and upper bounds of the model to build the geometry, such as the distance between the bottom and top of the model. Therefore, if we want to use initial topography, we also need to take into account the initial maximum topography when defining the “box” or sphere.

I opened a PR in GWB to retrieve the maximum topography automatically (GeodynamicWorldBuilder/WorldBuilder#945), but if this does not work, I provide a fallback option that allows the user to set it manually. It only needs to be a value greater than the expected topography of the model.

I also added box and spherical-shell tests.
@MFraters Cheers, Michael

Added thanks

Minerallo · 2026-07-29T12:41:07Z

@MFraters is this ready?

@Minerallo you will have to rebase this one more time to trigger the tests.

I rebased @gassmoeller @MFraters. :)

MFraters

one small question left. I am not sure what the best approach is. Let me know what you think.

MFraters · 2026-07-29T14:16:53Z

+    double
+    SubductingPlate::maximum_topography() const
+    {
+      return 0.0;


I am thinking whether it would make sense to leave it like this, or not. The topography implementation of the slab is currently just directly returning, leaving the value of the topography unchanged. I think the equivalent of that would be to return -infinity. Another option would be to just use the feature min depth here. This is also relevant for the other places where you return 0 at the moment.

MFraters · 2026-07-29T21:57:41Z

You need to rebase onto the newest master, and re-run make indent. Can you also squash your commits down a bit into logical blocks?

Minerallo · 2026-07-30T09:32:13Z

You need to rebase onto the newest master, and re-run make indent. Can you also squash your commits down a bit into logical blocks?

okay done @MFraters thanks !

MFraters

Looks good to me, thanks!

MFraters reviewed Jul 26, 2026

View reviewed changes

MFraters reviewed Jul 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

gassmoeller added the ready to test label Jul 29, 2026

Minerallo force-pushed the feature/gwb-initial-topography branch 2 times, most recently from 82d57ec to b4d35bb Compare July 29, 2026 12:39

MFraters reviewed Jul 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

Add initial topography from World Builder

300c158

Minerallo force-pushed the feature/gwb-initial-topography branch from d0db9c6 to 300c158 Compare July 30, 2026 09:13

Minerallo mentioned this pull request Jul 30, 2026

Isostatic initial topography #7035

Open

5 tasks

MFraters approved these changes Jul 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

MFraters merged commit 3e8d0ca into geodynamics:main Jul 30, 2026
10 checks passed

Uh oh!

Conversation

Minerallo commented Jul 26, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

For all pull requests:

For new features/models or changes of existing features:

Uh oh!

MFraters left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Minerallo commented Jul 28, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

MFraters left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

MFraters Jul 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Minerallo Jul 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

MFraters Jul 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

MFraters Jul 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Minerallo Jul 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

MFraters Jul 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

gassmoeller commented Jul 29, 2026

Uh oh!

Minerallo commented Jul 29, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Minerallo commented Jul 29, 2026

Uh oh!

MFraters left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

MFraters Jul 29, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

MFraters commented Jul 29, 2026

Uh oh!

Minerallo commented Jul 30, 2026

Uh oh!

MFraters left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

Minerallo commented Jul 26, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Minerallo commented Jul 28, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Minerallo commented Jul 29, 2026 •

edited

Loading