Questions to address in this course

Kristallingeologie
Paul Bons
AG Strukturgeologie
• How do rocks flow?
AB Mineralogie und Geodynamik
• Processes of rock deformation
Hölderlinstr. 16 • How fast do rocks flow?
E-mail: Paul.bons@uni-tuebingen.de • Rheology
• What microstructures form when rocks flow?
URL: http://structural-geology.info
• How do they form?
• What do they mean?

Set-up of this course Materials

• Theory
• Processes of rock deformation and rheology of rocks • Drawing paper
• Deformation microstructures • Drawing material (pencil, colour pencils)
• Ruler
• Microscopic analysis of thin sections
• Calculator
• Graph (mm) paper
• Teaching material will be posted on:
• Brains
http://www.structural-geology.info (!lectures)

• Useful literature:
• Tests: • Paschier & Trouw "Microtectonics".
• 1/2 midway: Written test on theory Springer Verlag
• 1/2 at end: practical microscopy test
 Today's lecture Deformation rate map of the world
1. Introduction into flow of rocks

2. Introduction into rheology

• What is rheology?
• What is a flow law?
• From atomic processes to flow laws
• Elasticity as an example
• From experiment to flow laws
• Calculate flow laws from experimental data

Different scales What is a microstructure?

Thin section scale • Microstructure ! fabric ! texture
• The complete arrangement of µm-mm scale
structures and elements in a rock

Minerals
Outcrop scale Grain size
Grain shape
Grain orientation
Subgrains
Fluid inclusions
Etc.
 Why study microstructures? Why study microstructures?

• Forensic science: what happened to the rock? • Inductive science

• Medium-high temperature deformation • The microstructure tells me that amphibolite-facies
• Dislocation creep quartzites deform by dislocation creep
• Dextral sense of shear • Experiments tell us that dislocation creep is associated
• Deductive with a power-law stress - strain rate relationship
• If I see X it means Y happened • Therefore, middle-crustal rocks have a power-law
stress - strain rate relationship

Why study microstructures? How do we know how rocks flow?

• Theory
• Scientific understanding: how does it al work?
• Observations of structures in the field (thin sections)
• What are the processes? (dislocation creep, pressure solution)
• What are the forces (plate movement, gravity) • But we do not a priori know what happened
• What are the rates? (10-10 …10-14 s-1) • Measurements in nature
• How do structures form? (folds, subgrains)
• Strain rate: glacial rebound, GPS
• Practical applications
• Stress: borehole break-outs
• Engineering (foundations, tunnels) • Analogy with other materials
• Oil & gas (basin subsidence, extraction) • Engineering materials: metals, ceramics
• Nuclear waste disposal
• Earthquake prediction
• Analogue materials: ice, octachloropropane
• CO2 sequestration • Numerical modelling
 Microstructures form the link The problem of rates in
between different techniques nature versus experiments
Quartz Quartz • Strain rate is the rate at which a line changes its
My days length: # ($L) # ( Lt % L0 ) #Lt
"˙ = = =
L0#t L0#t L0#t
#L 1
"˙#t = $ % "˙#t = % dL $ "˙&t = ln( Lt ) ' ln( L0 )
L L
Thin sections of real rocks Rock deformation experiments Imagine orogeny with 50% average shortening in 10
!
million years
C3Cl8 bits
hours cpu-time ! ln( Lt ) # ln( L0 ) ln(0.5) # ln(1)
"˙ = = = #0.069my #1
$t 10
-0.069 my-1 = -6.9·10-8 y-1 = -2.2·10-15 s-1
Natural strain rates are estimated at " 10-12 s-1
In-situ experiments under microscope Numerical simulations !

Laboratory time scales The problem of pressure in nature

• What is the slowest practical laboratory strain rate?
• Maximum length of experiment: !t " 4 weeks
Location Depth Lithostat
• Minimum shortening to be achieved: 20% km Pressure
ocean ridge crest 2.5 25 MPa
ln( Lt ) # ln( L0 ) ln(0.8) " ln(1) abyssal plain 4 40 MPa
"˙ = = = "0.056week "1 deep sea trench 12 120 MPa
$t 4
base of crust 30 1 GPa
• -0.056 week-1 = -9.2·10-8 s-1 ! -10-7 s-1 transition zone 600 20 GPa
Core-mantle 2900 140 GPa
boundary
! ! are over 5 orders of magnitude slower
• Natural rates Center of Earth 6400 360 GPa

than laboratory rates

 Scaling from experiment to nature Experimental equipment

500 1000 500 1000

0 Multi-Anvil System
Temperature (°C) Temperature (°C)
Griggs
Rig
10-3 (b)

Strain rate (/s)

natural 1h
EXPERIMENTS

Time to deform to !=1

quartz EXPERIMENTS 1 day
10-6
1 1 yr

10-9
Pressure (GPa)

natural 1 kyr
olivine
10-12
natural natural
quartz olivine 1 Myr
2 (a) 10-15

Results of experiments - 1 Results of experiments - 2

Constant strain rate Constant stress

Strain rate
stress
time time
• Stress and strain are monitored during an experiment
• Constant stress (creep tests)
Deformed samples Microstructure in deformed sample
• Constant strain rate
 Numerical simulations In-situ analogue experiments

Elle

Molecular dynamics

Particle code
• Analogue materials: OCP, norcamphor, etc.
• Thin-section like sample
• Low T, low stress, high strain rate

Rheology Flow laws: "˙ij = f (# ij ,T,P,Sk , M l , pm )

Rheology = the science of flow of materials
Relating the strain rate to the stress
"˙ # $
• Flow laws are the basic equations in rheology
• Flow laws relate stress to strain rate
• Strain rate [s-1] = rate of change of length (shape)
!
• Stress [Pa=Nm-2] = forces acting on material divided by area

!
 From atomic processes to
Flow laws: "˙ij = f (# ij ,T,P,Sk , M l , pm )
constitutive law: an example
$ #Q '
• Macroscopic variables & ) *+ • All materials are elastic
% RT (
• Stress tensor: "ij Example: "˙ = Ae
gm • They change their shape when a stress is applied:
• Strain rate tensor: "˙ij
" = f (# )
•!Temperature (T) and pressure (P):
• Sk: State variables that describe the state of the • What is the link f(") between strain and stress?
material, which
! may change during deformation
! • Consider process at atomic scale
• Microstructure: grain shape, grain size !
• Scale up to an equation for the material as a
• Dislocation or vacancy density
continuum
• Ml: Material properties • pm: Parameters
• Elastic constant • Avogadro's number
• Atomic volume • Universal gas constant

Equilibrium position of atoms Adding a stress

R R0
R0 R"
R" "

• The distance (R) between atoms is a balance between • Adding other forces changes the minimum-energy
repulsion and attraction
position
• In the absence of any other forces • Change in atomic distance = strain
• there is a stable distance R0
• We can now relate stress to strain
• at the lowest potential energy
 Linear (Hookean) elasticity Young's modulus of halite (NaCl)
100 mm2
F
• Salt crystal of size 20 x 10 x 10 mm
• Subjected to force of F = 104 N

20 mm
• Shortens to 19.9 mm
• What is the Young's modulus?

• Near R0, the relationship between stress and atomic

Stress = force / area = 104 N / 10-4 m2 = 108 Pa = 100 MPa
distance is approximately linear:
R" # R0 " Strain = !L/L0 = 0.1/20 = 5·10-3 (=0.5 %)
=$ = In 3 dimensions: " ij = E ijkl#kl
R0 E
# # 100
• E = Young's modulus "= $E= E= #3
= 2 "10 4 MPa E = 20 GPa
E " 5 "10
• Elastic strain is instantaneous: no time dependence
!
! • Elastic strain is reversible (not permanent)
! !

Strength of a material Creep test: constant strain rate

Constant "˙
• Move piston to deform sample at
constant strain rate
sample • Measure stress needed to do so
! ! Creep curve

• Maximum stress ("th) is reached at about 10% strain

stress Linear elasticity stress Linear elasticity
• Rock salt at 2 Gpa
• In reality, the strength of a crystalline material is more
Brittle Plastic yield
than 100-1000x smaller failure
Ductile flow
• Why????
strain strain
 Ductile flow "˙ A typical flow law
Constant "˙ Differential stress
stress Linear elasticity = "1 - "3
#Q n
$
sample Plastic yield
!
sample "˙ = Aexp RT
!
Ductile flow
gm
strain • A = material property
• Material can flow
• Diffusion of atoms, glide of dislocations, etc. • Pressure-dependence (usually not important)
• Other factors (e.g. water presence)
• Flow is time-dependent !
• Q = activation energy
• More time: more strain
• Strain is permanent • R = universal gas constant & T = temperature
• Remove stress, strain remains • n = stress exponent (typically 1 to 5)
• g = grain size & m = grain size exponent (1 to 3)

Steady state flow Determining a flow law

Linear elasticity
Usually, grain size is the stress • Multiple experiments, varying the macroscopic and
only state variable state variables
Steady state
• Measure steady-state strain rate - stress relationship
But we also have grain
shape, orientation, etc. strain
" 5-30% Constant temperature Constant strain rate
stress stress
• After some strain, stress does not change any more if Strain rate Temperature
strain rate is kept constant
• This is called steady state
• Flow laws are derived from steady-state experiments
• Assumption is that state variables do not change any
more strain strain
 Determining A, Q, n, m Exercise: determine A, Q, n for quartz
Constant stress
& • Quartz samples were deformed at
#Q
$n
$Q
%n )
"˙ = Aexp RT " ln(#˙) = ln( Aexp RT
+ constant stress
gm ' gm * Quartz
sample
• Steady state strain rate was measured
#Q
Use ln(ab)=ln(a)+ln(b) Q • Assume flow law:
And ln(a/b)= ln(a)-ln(b)
" ln(#˙) = ln( A) $ + n ln(% ) $ m ln( g) "˙ = Aexp RT $ n
RT
! ! Experiments at 900 °C Experiments at 200 MPa
• This is a linear function in log-log space Stress (MPa) Strain rate (/s) T (°C) Strain rate (/s)
• Plot data! in log-log space 100 1.7·10-8 !
800 2.2·10-8
• Keep all other variables constant 125 3.3·10-8 900 1.4·10-7

150 5.9·10-8 1000 6.4·10-7

175 8.8·10-8
$ d (ln("˙)) '
• For example to get stress exponent: n = && )) 200 1.5·10-7 Use R = 8.3 J·mol-1·K-1
% d (ln(# )) ((T ,g ) 250 2.7·10-7

Olivine flow law & brittle failure Now add brittle failure
#Q
n
• Flow law for olivine and quartz are given: "˙ = Aexp RT $ • Rocks fail by fracturing when differential stress is too
• Aol = 7·10-4 MPa-3·s-1 Aqz = 4.2·10-5 MPa-3·s-1 high
• Qol = 4.5·105 J·mol-1 Qqz = 1.9·105 J·mol-1 • Plot the differential stress for failure line in the same
• nol = 3 nqz =!3 plot as before
• Use ("max-"min)=0.6(Plith-Pfluid) at failure:
• Using flow laws for quartz and olivine, plot the stress
• Minimum (vertical) stress = lithostatic pressure (Plith)
needed to deform crust and mantle at strain rates of
• Maximum stress = horizontal compression
• 10-12 and 10-15 s-1
• Fluid pressure (Pfluid) = 0.5 x lithostatic pressure
• Assume crust 40 km thick is made of quartz only • Density = 2.7·103 kg/m3 (quartz) & 3.5·103 kg/m3 (olivine)
• Mantle is made of olivine only • Gravitational acceleration = 10 m/s2
• Geothermal gradient is constant at 15 °C/km in crust • Hint: you only need to determine the failure stress twice to
determine the straight lines in the graph!
• Geothermal gradient is constant at 10 °C/km in mantle