Skip to main content

Scientists use a supercomputer to simulate one of history’s biggest quakes

The December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake is the third strongest recorded earthquake in history. Triggering a series of enormous tsunamis, the deadly quake ultimately caused the deaths of more than to 200,000 people in 15 countries — making it one of the most devastating natural disasters of all time. To try and learn lessons from it, German researchers from the Technical University of Munich and Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich recently used a SuperMUC supercomputer to reproduce the event, in what they claim is the biggest ever multiphysics simulation of an earthquake and tsunami.

This immensely challenging task was the result of five years of preparations in order to optimize the earthquake simulation software.

Recommended Videos

“Reality is complex — and earthquakes are a multi-scale and multi-physics problem,” Dr. Alice-Agnes Gabriel, the lead researcher from the LMU side of the team, told Digital Trends. “To gain insight into the geophysical processes of the earthquake, we [needed] to simultaneously calculate the complicated fracture of several fault segments and the subsurface propagation of seismic waves, and we [needed] to consider modeling domains, spanning hundreds of kilometers, as well as the tip of earthquake fronts which is releasing tectonic stresses on, at most, meter scale.”

C. Uphoff, S.Rettenberger, M. Bader, Technical University of Munich. E. Madden, T. Ulrich, S. Wollherr, A. Gabriel, Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität
C. Uphoff, S.Rettenberger, M. Bader, Technical University of Munich. E. Madden, T. Ulrich, S. Wollherr, A. Gabriel, Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität

The simulation took around 14 hours to complete, using all 86,016 cores of the SuperMUC, which performed nearly 50 trillion operations in the process. To perform the seismic wave propagation calculations alone, more than 3 million time steps had to be computed. According to the researchers, the work is so cutting edge that — just two years earlier — the computing time for the simulation would have taken 15 times longer.

As desirable as it would be to do so, Gabriel said that there is “no realistic hope” of researchers being able to predict earthquakes like this anytime soon. Instead, simulations such as this one are crucial because they can hopefully be used to help mitigate earthquake-related damage to infrastructure, societies, and economies.

“Our analysis will help with the development of more reliable early warning systems,” she said. The work may also help researchers to understand why some earthquakes and the resulting tsunamis are so much bigger than others.

In recognition of the researchers’ achievement, a paper describing this work was nominated for the “best paper” award at SC17, one of the world’s premier supercomputing conferences, currently taking place in Denver.

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Star Wars legend Ian McDiarmid gets questions about the Emperor’s sex life
Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

This weekend, the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary re-release had a much stronger performance than expected with $25 million and a second-place finish behind Sinners. Revenge of the Sith was the culmination of plans by Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) that led to the fall of the Jedi and his own ascension to emperor. Because McDiarmid's Emperor died in his first appearance -- 1983's Return of the Jedi -- Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be his live-action swan song. However, Palpatine's return in Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker left McDiarmid being asked questions about his character's comeback, particularly about his sex life and how he could have a granddaughter.

While speaking with Variety, McDiarmid noted that fans have asked him "slightly embarrassing questions" about Palpatine including "'Does this evil monster ever have sex?'"

Read more
Waymo and Toyota explore personally owned self-driving cars
Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

Waymo and Toyota have announced they’re exploring a strategic collaboration—and one of the most exciting possibilities on the table is bringing fully-automated driving technology to personally owned vehicles.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has made its name with its robotaxi service, the only one currently operating in the U.S. Its vehicles, including Jaguars and Hyundai Ioniq 5s, have logged tens of millions of autonomous miles on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.
But shifting to personally owned self-driving cars is a much more complex challenge.
While safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far taken a cautious approach to the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. General Motors-backed Cruise robotaxi was forced to suspend operations in 2023 following a fatal collision.
While the partnership with Toyota is still in the early stages, Waymo says it will initially study how to merge its autonomous systems with the Japanese automaker’s consumer vehicle platforms.
In a recent call with analysts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai signaled that Waymo is seriously considering expanding beyond ride-hailing fleets and into personal ownership. While nothing is confirmed, the partnership with Toyota adds credibility—and manufacturing muscle—to that vision.
Toyota brings decades of safety innovation to the table, including its widely adopted Toyota Safety Sense technology. Through its software division, Woven by Toyota, the company is also pushing into next-generation vehicle platforms. With Waymo, Toyota is now also looking at how automation can evolve beyond assisted driving and into full autonomy for individual drivers.
This move also turns up the heat on Tesla, which has long promised fully self-driving vehicles for consumers. While Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, it remains supervised and hasn’t yet delivered on full autonomy. CEO Elon Musk is promising to launch some of its first robotaxis in Austin in June.
When it comes to self-driving cars, Waymo and Tesla are taking very different roads. Tesla aims to deliver affordability and scale with its camera, AI-based software. Waymo, by contrast, uses a more expensive technology relying on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar), that regulators have been quicker to trust.

Read more
Uber partners with May Mobility to bring thousands of autonomous vehicles to U.S. streets
uber may mobility av rides partnership

The self-driving race is shifting into high gear, and Uber just added more horsepower. In a new multi-year partnership, Uber and autonomous vehicle (AV) company May Mobility will begin rolling out driverless rides in Arlington, Texas by the end of 2025—with thousands more vehicles planned across the U.S. in the coming years.
Uber has already taken serious steps towards making autonomous ride-hailing a mainstream option. The company already works with Waymo, whose robotaxis are live in multiple cities, and now it’s welcoming May Mobility’s hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna vans to its platform. The vehicles will launch with safety drivers at first but are expected to go fully autonomous as deployments mature.
May Mobility isn’t new to this game. Backed by Toyota, BMW, and other major players, it’s been running AV services in geofenced areas since 2021. Its AI-powered Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) tech allows it to react quickly and safely to unpredictable real-world conditions—something that’s helped it earn trust in city partnerships across the U.S. and Japan.
This expansion into ride-hailing is part of a broader industry trend. Waymo, widely seen as the current AV frontrunner, continues scaling its service in cities like Phoenix and Austin. Tesla, meanwhile, is preparing to launch its first robotaxis in Austin this June, with a small fleet of Model Ys powered by its camera-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. While Tesla aims for affordability and scale, Waymo and May are focused on safety-first deployments using sensor-rich systems, including lidar—a tech stack regulators have so far favored.
Beyond ride-hailing, the idea of personally owned self-driving cars is also gaining traction. Waymo and Toyota recently announced they’re exploring how to bring full autonomy to private vehicles, a move that could eventually bring robotaxi tech right into your garage.
With big names like Uber, Tesla, Waymo, and now May Mobility in the mix, the ride-hailing industry is evolving fast—and the road ahead looks increasingly driver-optional.

Read more