Where are we now?

Where are we after reading 17 chapters + Introduction and performing (all?) analytical and programming exercises and homework? We are still only at the very beginning of the wonderful, rapidly developing, world of numerical geodynamic modelling. The method we learned is based on a finite-difference method and marker-in-cell techniques (FDM+MIC). Although this holds for many geodynamic situations (‘all in one’ tool, Gerya and Yuen, 2007), its universality is not absolute and other approaches may be better suited for some numerical problems. The examples provided in this book are written in a very explicit way, with the purpose of facilitating learning and understanding, rather than to produce massive and fast numerical results. The resolution of the numerical examples is also moderate so that corresponding experiments can be completed in a reasonable amount of time (several seconds to several days) on an ordinary laptop which is, by the way, not exactly the main tool of geodynamic modellers (apart from, sometimes, for code developments and testing, for looking at results computed on big machines and for writing papers and books like this one …). Once again, we are at the beginning and if we want to go further, it is worth reading the following.