Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FluidNET (Fluids driving the evolution of the continental crust: influence of pathway networks, fluxes, and time scales.)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-01-01 do 2025-06-30
Today, human society faces unprecedented challenges: the impact of human actions on the environment is increasing, with global warming and depletion of resources. The EU Commission announced the ambitious ‘EU Green Deal’, with an energy transition away from fossil fuels to renewables. For this, demand for metals needed for generation, storage and transport of energy will grow strongly. The FluidNET consortium created a strong industry–academia collaboration of 8 beneficiaries (6 academic, 1 natural history museum, 1 industry partner) and multiple partner organisations. The charter of FluidNET is to constrain fluid–rock interaction processes underlying critical metal ores and to train early stage researchers (ESRs) in the skills to address growing resource demand.
FluidNET partners noted the absence of initiatives bringing together disparate research fields: nano-/micro-chemistry, crustal-scale fluid mass transport, physical and chemical constraints for ore formation, and especially the timescales of such processes. FluidNET was designed to structure EU research by uniting a diverse, cross-disciplinary team of academic and industry leaders to deliver new training paths for future science leaders. Global industry partners BHP (ores), ThermoFisher Scientific (analytical equipment), and several consultancy firms actively contributed to FluidNET’s research goals and training. Its integrated approach develops crucial knowledge for the EU Green Deal and UN SDGs (#7, #13).
FluidNET delivered the agreed training: academic skills for scientific research and transferable skills for teamwork, communication with peers, the public, and schools. It created a new collaborative platform uniting researchers in different earth science fields focusing on fluids. The PIs see further opportunities by connecting FluidNET with other MSCA ITNs in related areas.
The 12 ESRs contributed significant advances: modelling fluid mobility, constraining mobility in time and distance, studying continental crust domains, simulating fluid–crystal interaction in labs, and examining porosity-related mobility. The outstanding challenge is to integrate these findings within the team and with other ITNs.
FluidNET partners noted the absence of initiatives bringing together disparate research fields: nano-/micro-chemistry, crustal-scale fluid mass transport, physical and chemical constraints for ore formation, and especially the timescales of such processes. FluidNET was designed to structure EU research by uniting a diverse, cross-disciplinary team of academic and industry leaders to deliver new training paths for future science leaders. Global industry partners BHP (ores), ThermoFisher Scientific (analytical equipment), and several consultancy firms actively contributed to FluidNET’s research goals and training. Its integrated approach develops crucial knowledge for the EU Green Deal and UN SDGs (#7, #13).
FluidNET delivered the agreed training: academic skills for scientific research and transferable skills for teamwork, communication with peers, the public, and schools. It created a new collaborative platform uniting researchers in different earth science fields focusing on fluids. The PIs see further opportunities by connecting FluidNET with other MSCA ITNs in related areas.
The 12 ESRs contributed significant advances: modelling fluid mobility, constraining mobility in time and distance, studying continental crust domains, simulating fluid–crystal interaction in labs, and examining porosity-related mobility. The outstanding challenge is to integrate these findings within the team and with other ITNs.
WP1 – Upper crust: We sampled quartz veins in a skarn deposit (Serifos, Greece), in slates along the coastline of Almograve, Portugal, and a section from slates to high-grade gneisses in the Agly Massif to study crustal fluid flow. Together with WP5, we developed numerically consistent models of fluid mixing in fracture networks to estimate porosity and permeability changes, which could be adapted by other ESRs. We also began estimating fluid compositions trapped in quartz veins through fluid inclusions, 40Ar/39Ar dating, and experimental data.
WP2 – Middle crust: We examined mid-crustal levels dominated by ductile processes in quartz- and feldspar-rich rocks, where hydrous fluids alternated between subcritical and supercritical states. Sub-solidus conditions generally prevailed except in crystallizing magmas and contact aureoles. WP2 focused on granitoid magma emplacement, and constraints on fluid flow time- and length scales started to emerge.
WP3 – Lower crust: We investigated crustal levels where supersolidus conditions prevailed in mica-rich lithologies with regional partial melting, mainly migmatites and granulites. Before and after peak temperatures, subsolidus conditions dominated, implying sequences from fluid-dominated to melt-dominated and back to fluid-dominated processes. This complexity required multiple approaches to reconstruct events.
WP4 – Improving the Toolbox: This WP acquired data from natural materials (WP1–3) and experiments. We targeted fluid sources via halogens in inclusions, isotopic signatures, phase reactivity, fluid-flow timescales, and drone photogrammetry for vein distribution. We applied micro-chemical and triple halogen analyses, hydrothermal experiments for porosity-related mineral formation, and microthermometry to determine trapping conditions. We also used step-wise crushing, single-grain fusion, in-situ dating, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, and noble gas geochemistry to evaluate fluid mobility timescales.
WP5 – Modelling and validation: We focused on data utilization through numerical, database, observational, and experimental methods. Jointly with WP1, we developed models of fluid mixing in fracture networks to estimate porosity and permeability changes, which could be applied by other ESRs.
Fundamental outcomes of the FluidNET effort can be summarized as fluid mobility is periodic, short and pulsed. Chemical interaction as demonstrated in laboratory simulations are found to be fast.
Exploitation of FluidNET results will evolve over time: industry Beneficiaries and Partner Organizations benefitted from fast track dissemination within the ITN as communicated during the Research in Progress meetings. FluidNET provided opportunities for each ESR to communicate results at major international geoscience conferences. FluidNET members organized a symposium during the 2023 EGU conference, creating a platform for interaction with the wider geoscience community. The team also organized a Science Conference inviting prominent external researchers and Advisory Board members, while providing travel and registration grants to early stage researchers outside the ITN.
The dissemination of FluidNET results matches the team’s stage: several ESRs have already defended dissertations, and most others are in the final stages of preparation. All reported materials are published Open Access using ZENODO as the central hub for dissemination (https://zenodo.org/communities/fluidnet-itn/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
WP2 – Middle crust: We examined mid-crustal levels dominated by ductile processes in quartz- and feldspar-rich rocks, where hydrous fluids alternated between subcritical and supercritical states. Sub-solidus conditions generally prevailed except in crystallizing magmas and contact aureoles. WP2 focused on granitoid magma emplacement, and constraints on fluid flow time- and length scales started to emerge.
WP3 – Lower crust: We investigated crustal levels where supersolidus conditions prevailed in mica-rich lithologies with regional partial melting, mainly migmatites and granulites. Before and after peak temperatures, subsolidus conditions dominated, implying sequences from fluid-dominated to melt-dominated and back to fluid-dominated processes. This complexity required multiple approaches to reconstruct events.
WP4 – Improving the Toolbox: This WP acquired data from natural materials (WP1–3) and experiments. We targeted fluid sources via halogens in inclusions, isotopic signatures, phase reactivity, fluid-flow timescales, and drone photogrammetry for vein distribution. We applied micro-chemical and triple halogen analyses, hydrothermal experiments for porosity-related mineral formation, and microthermometry to determine trapping conditions. We also used step-wise crushing, single-grain fusion, in-situ dating, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, and noble gas geochemistry to evaluate fluid mobility timescales.
WP5 – Modelling and validation: We focused on data utilization through numerical, database, observational, and experimental methods. Jointly with WP1, we developed models of fluid mixing in fracture networks to estimate porosity and permeability changes, which could be applied by other ESRs.
Fundamental outcomes of the FluidNET effort can be summarized as fluid mobility is periodic, short and pulsed. Chemical interaction as demonstrated in laboratory simulations are found to be fast.
Exploitation of FluidNET results will evolve over time: industry Beneficiaries and Partner Organizations benefitted from fast track dissemination within the ITN as communicated during the Research in Progress meetings. FluidNET provided opportunities for each ESR to communicate results at major international geoscience conferences. FluidNET members organized a symposium during the 2023 EGU conference, creating a platform for interaction with the wider geoscience community. The team also organized a Science Conference inviting prominent external researchers and Advisory Board members, while providing travel and registration grants to early stage researchers outside the ITN.
The dissemination of FluidNET results matches the team’s stage: several ESRs have already defended dissertations, and most others are in the final stages of preparation. All reported materials are published Open Access using ZENODO as the central hub for dissemination (https://zenodo.org/communities/fluidnet-itn/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
Our research programme had multiple integrated and innovative targets. It broke new ground by combining field observations, micro-geochemical approaches and macroscopic fluid flow models.
Our key strength was linking novel analytical approaches to unlocking the geological fluid flow record:
• dating fluid inclusions via 40Ar/39Ar stepwise crushing (VUA), noble gas tracing (OU),
• molecular speciation and thermobarometry (UniMib),
• nano-scale AFM analyses and modelling (WWU),
• in situ X-ray tomography and electron microscopy (UU),
• micro-scale trace element and triple halogen geochemistry (RWTH).
The progressive use, refinement and combination of this unique range of state-of-the-art methods pioneered a new step in fluid–rock interaction studies. We brought together knowledge of crustal processes in upper, middle and lower domains. Our methodologies constrained when, where, why, how and how fast fluids were released and transported, how they reacted in the crust, and quantified the metals carried. The strong contribution of industry ensured cross fertilization with ideas and short-tracking of applications.
Our focus was to integrate fluid provenance, length- and timescale constraints into a model combining chemical-physical aspects of crustal fluid flow, linking reactions to processes across temporal and spatial scales. Knowledge still lacked the temporal information to test synchronicity predictions. We aimed to validate such models and apply them to well-characterized case histories.
FluidNET outcomes improved understanding of hydrous fluid mobility in the continental crust, in terms of rates, volumes and transport distances.
Our key strength was linking novel analytical approaches to unlocking the geological fluid flow record:
• dating fluid inclusions via 40Ar/39Ar stepwise crushing (VUA), noble gas tracing (OU),
• molecular speciation and thermobarometry (UniMib),
• nano-scale AFM analyses and modelling (WWU),
• in situ X-ray tomography and electron microscopy (UU),
• micro-scale trace element and triple halogen geochemistry (RWTH).
The progressive use, refinement and combination of this unique range of state-of-the-art methods pioneered a new step in fluid–rock interaction studies. We brought together knowledge of crustal processes in upper, middle and lower domains. Our methodologies constrained when, where, why, how and how fast fluids were released and transported, how they reacted in the crust, and quantified the metals carried. The strong contribution of industry ensured cross fertilization with ideas and short-tracking of applications.
Our focus was to integrate fluid provenance, length- and timescale constraints into a model combining chemical-physical aspects of crustal fluid flow, linking reactions to processes across temporal and spatial scales. Knowledge still lacked the temporal information to test synchronicity predictions. We aimed to validate such models and apply them to well-characterized case histories.
FluidNET outcomes improved understanding of hydrous fluid mobility in the continental crust, in terms of rates, volumes and transport distances.