Geodynamical simulations cover a wide spatial and temporal range and are crucial to understand and assess the evolution of the Earth system. To enable computationally efficient modeling approaches that can account for potentially unknown subsurface properties, we present a surrogate modeling technique. This technique combines physics-based and machine-learning techniques to enable reliable predictions of geodynamical applications, as we illustrate for the case study of the Alpine Region.

To make better use of underground heat storage, we need to understand how water flows through deep rock layers. Normally, this is tested after drilling is finished, but we tried doing it during an earlier stage to save time and effort. At a site in Berlin, we tested a new way to measure how water moves through rock while the borehole was still being developed. The method worked well and gives quicker, reliable insights into underground conditions.

Shallow groundwater temperatures are increasing as a consequence of global warming. At the same time, climate models project substantial changes in future groundwater recharge, with impacts on groundwater levels. We investigated the combined effects of these two processes. Our modeling results suggest that decreased annual recharge or increased cold recharge in winter can locally slow groundwater warming, but not sufficiently to stop or reverse the overall warming trend.

A systematic laboratory experiment elucidates two-phase heat transport due to water flow in saturated porous media to understand thermal propagation in aquifers. Results reveal delayed thermal arrival in the solid phase, depending on grain size and flow velocity. Analytical modeling using standard local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and advanced local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) theory fails to describe temperature breakthrough curves, highlighting the need for more advanced numerical approaches.

We develop a simplified model which describes the geological geometry of the Vendenheim site, the solid and fluid properties were adapted from studies in the area. We implement compute the hydrothermal flow with a temperature dependent density and viscosity in a porous medium, in order to verify if a hydrothermal convective system is compatible with known observations at the Vendenheim site, and to get a better idea of the initial conditions of a model for an induced seismicity model.