A new image analysis technique for quantifying transitions in rock deformation

What is it about?

Rocks contain cracks; these cracks are important because when rocks are placed under load (whether natural or man made), these flaws concentrate stress. Stress concentrations lead cracks to link up to form throughgoing features, such as faults. This is how earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions start: processes occurring at a small scale (e.g., micrometers) have large-scale consequences. Laboratory experiments have shown that there is a rapid transition in behavior of porous materials under stress: at a certain point, the cracks interact and coalesce in a narrow zone, rather than being distributed throughout the material.

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Why is it important?

In this work we present a novel technique that is able to quantify the transition between distributed (“stable”) deformation and localized (“unstable”) deformation, in terms crack sizes and orientations at the point of failure. This will help us to understand the physics underlying the initiation of catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions.

Perspectives