Descripción del proyecto
Las deformaciones de las rocas y la función de los fluidos a múltiples escalas de tiempo y distancia
Desde la formación de montañas hasta los terremotos, los movimientos dinámicos de la Tierra sólida en escalas de tiempo largas y cortas se rigen —quizá sorprendentemente— por el agua. Las fuerzas físicas y las reacciones químicas relacionadas con el agua en la Tierra a distintas profundidades tienen una función, pero los mecanismos y los efectos cuantitativos no se conocen bien. El equipo del proyecto RockDeath, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, tratará de identificar y cuantificar los procesos mecánicos, hidráulicos y químicos acoplados que tienen lugar en la litosfera y la función que desempeñan los fluidos a distintas profundidades en la dinámica rápida y lenta. Esto se investigará mediante experimentos de laboratorio de deformación de rocas con instrumentación y métodos de tratamiento de datos de última generación.
Objetivo
The dynamics of the solid Earth, e.g. the initiation of plate tectonics, the strength of plate boundaries, and the formation and evolution of mountains, is directly controlled by the chemical and physical action of water. In the shallow (brittle) part of the lithosphere, fluid pressure counteracts the lithostatic pressure and weakens faults. At greater depth, the chemical activity of water makes rocks plastically weaker, and is also responsible for metamorphic reactions that induce weakening. Fluids have been invoked to explain observations of tremor and slow slip at depth, and a large fraction of crustal seismicity is attributed to upward fluid flow, inducing earthquake swarms.
Yet we still have very few quantitative constraints on either fluid pressure or chemical activity of water at depth in the lithosphere. In addition, fluid pressure and transport are coupled to deformation, and the mechanisms by which fluids induce fault slip and seismicity are not well understood: crustal fluids are very mobile, and rock physical properties evolve in response to both fluid-rock interactions and deformation.
The aim of this project is to identify and quantify the coupled mechanical, hydraulic and chemical processes occurring across the lithosphere, from slow creep to rapid earthquake slip, and determine the role played by fluids on deep and shallow seismicity, slow slip, and long-term evolution of plate boundaries.
I propose to conduct laboratory rock deformation experiments with state-of-the-art instrumentation and data processing methods to determine the spatio-temporal evolution of fluid flow and seismicity during faulting, quantify the evolution of rock physical and transport properties during long-term ``healing'', and test how chemical water activity and metamorphic hydration reactions impact deep fault rheology. The laboratory data will allow us to establish the geophysical signature of fluids in the lithosphere, and how they impact the dynamics of faults.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitución de acogida
14473 POTSDAM
Alemania