Geological Society of America

3 Monday PM Talks

Monday, 20 June 2022
12:55 PM - 4:30 PM
Grand 'Ole Hall

REVISITING THE FATE OF FRACTURE ENERGY—IMPLICATIONS FOR EARTH SURFACE DYNAMICS

Paper number: 3-4
Program: Sessions
Time: 2:15 PM – 2:30 PM

Authors

Timothy Reginald Davies
University of Canterbury New Zealand, Canterbury
Mauri McSaveney Presenting Author
SKLGP, Chengdu University of Technology, N/A

Abstract

Recent demonstrations, that the energy required to fracture brittle rocks is not “consumed” as surface energy , but is instead released as high-frequency body-wave energy and/or fragment kinetic energy and so remains available to do further mechanical work, have wide implications in fracture mechanics and its applications. These are important when high-energy and high-strain-rate fragmentation generates much larger quantities of ultrafine fragments than previously thought. We will outline how the following phenomena and processes are significantly affected by this change in perspective:

Sediment particle size distributions: grinding limit and agglomeration
Fault rupture energy, friction and gouge characteristics
Runout of large rock avalanches and blockslides
Stability of landslide dams
Moraine paleoclimatology
Volcanic ash generation and characteristics
Impact cratering
Geohazard assessments

We also outline how this understanding of fracture energetics affects discrete element modelling of rock fracture.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022PR-375972

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