ALBERT

Description: Coal fires are severe hazards to environment, health and safety throughout the world. Efficient and economical extinguishing of these fires requires that the extent of the subsurface coal fires should be delineated. Electrical and electromagnetic methods have been used to detect coal fires in recent years. However, the resistivity change of coal-bearing rocks at high temperature is rarely investigated. The resistivity characteristics of coal fires at different temperatures and depths are seldomly researched as well. In this paper, we present the results of measurements of several coal-bearing rocks’ resistivity and permeability under high temperature. Two major causes for the change in resistivity with increasing temperature are recognized, there are the increase of charge carriers and thermal fracturing, of which the first one is probably the dominant cause. A set of 2-D simulations is carried out to compare the relation of resolution and efficiency of coal fires detection to temperature and depth when adopting the electrical resistance tomography. The simulation results show that the resolution and efficiency decrease with the decrease of temperature and the increase of depth. Finally, the electrical resistance tomography is used to delineate coal fires in the Anjialing Open Pit Mine. Most low-resistivity regions are verified as coal-fire areas according to the long-term monitoring of borehole temperature. The results indicate that the electrical resistance tomography can be used as a tool for the detection of coal fires.

Description: We study a model of lava flow to determine its thermal and dynamic characteristics from thermal measurements of the lava at its surface. Mathematically this problem is reduced to solving an inverse boundary problem. Namely, using known conditions at one part of the model boundary we determine the missing condition at the remaining part of the boundary. We develop a numerical approach to the mathematical problem in the case of steady-state flow. Assuming that the temperature and the heat flow are prescribed at the upper surface of the model domain, we determine the flow characteristics in the entire model domain using a variational (adjoint) method. We have performed computations of model examples and showed that in the case of smooth input data the lava temperature and the flow velocity can be reconstructed with a high accuracy. As expected, a noise imposed on the smooth input data results in a less accurate solution, but still acceptable below some noise level. Also we analyse the influence of optimization methods on the solution convergence rate. The proposed method for reconstruction of physical parameters of lava flows can also be applied to other problems in geophysical fluid flows.

Description: Deformation experiments on partially molten rocks in simple shear form melt bands at 20° to the shear plane instead of at the expected 45° principal compressive stress direction. These melt bands may play an important role in melt focusing in mid-ocean ridges. Such shallow bands are known to form for two-phase media under shear if strongly non-Newtonian power-law creep is employed for the solid phase, or anisotropy imposed. However laboratory experiments show that shallow bands occur regardless of creep mechanism, even in diffusion creep, which is nominally Newtonian. Here we propose that a couple of forms of two-phase damage allow for shallow melt bands even in diffusion creep.

Description: We present a strategy to thoroughly investigate the effects of prominent topography on the surface tilt due to a spherical pressure source. We use Etna's topography as a case of study and, for different source positions, we compare the tilt fields calculated through (i) a 3-D boundary element method and (ii) analytical half-space solutions. We systematically determine (i) the source positions leading to the strongest tilt misfits when numerical and analytical results are compared and (ii) the surface areas where the strongest distortions in the tilt field are most likely to be observed. We also demonstrate that, under critical circumstances, in terms of respective positions of pressure source and observation points, results of inversion procedures aimed at retrieving the source parameters can be misleading, if tilt data are analysed using models that do not account for topography.

Description: The agreement between shear wave velocities for the Earth's inner core observed from seismology with those derived from mineral physics is considerably worse than for any other region of the Earth. Furthermore, there is still debate as to the phase of iron present in the inner core, particularly when alloying with nickel and light elements is taken into account. To investigate the extent to which the mismatch between seismology and mineral physics is a function of either crystal structure and/or the amount of nickel present, we have used ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the elastic constants and seismic velocities ( V p and V s ) of face centred cubic (fcc) iron at Earth's inner core pressures (360 GPa) and at temperatures up to ~7000 K. We find that V p for fcc iron (fcc-Fe) is very similar to that for hexagonal close packed (hcp) iron at all temperatures. In contrast, V s for fcc-Fe is significantly higher than in hcp-Fe, with the difference increasing with increasing temperature; the difference between V s for the core (from seismology) and V s for fcc-Fe exceeds 40 per cent. These results are consistent with previous work at lower temperatures. We have also investigated the effect of 6.5 and 13 atm% Ni in fcc-Fe. We find that Ni only slightly reduces V p and V s (e.g. by 2 per cent in V s for 13 atm% Ni at 5500 K), and cannot account for the difference between the velocities observed in the core and those of pure fcc-Fe. We also tried to examine pre-melting behaviour in fcc-Fe, as reported in hcp-Fe by extending the study to very high temperatures (at which superheating may occur). However, we find that fcc-Fe spontaneously transforms to other hcp-like structures before melting; two hcp-like structures were found, both of hexagonal symmetry, which may most easily be regarded as being derived from an hcp crystal with stacking faults. That the structure did not transform to a true hcp phase is likely as a consequence of the limited size of the simulation box (108 atoms). At 360 GPa, in pure fcc-Fe, we find that the transition from fcc to the hcp-like structure occurs at 7000 K, whereas in the Ni bearing system, the transition occurs at higher temperature (7250 K). This reinforces previous work showing that fcc-Fe might transform to hcp-Fe just before melting, and that Ni tends to stabilize the fcc structure with respect to hcp.

Description: One of the unresolved questions concerning fault deformation is the degree and cause of localization of shear at depth beneath a fault. Geologic observations of exhumed shear zones indicate that while the motion is no longer planar, it can still be localized near the down-dip extension of the fault; however, the degree of localization is uncertain. We employ simple analytic and numerical models to investigate the structural form of distributed shear beneath a strike-slip fault, and the relative importance of the physical mechanisms that have the potential to localize a shear zone. For a purely depth dependent viscosity, = 0 exp (– z / z 0 ), we find that a shear zone develops with a half-width $\delta _w\sim \sqrt{z_0}$ for small z 0 at the base of the layer, where lengths are non-dimensionalized by the layer thickness ( d km). Including a non-linear stress–strain-rate relation ( $\dot{\epsilon }\propto \sigma ^n$ ) scales w by $1/\sqrt{n}$ , comparable to deformation length scales in thin viscous sheet calculations. We find that the primary control on the shear-zone width is the depth dependence of viscosity that arises from the temperature dependence of viscosity and the increase in temperature with depth. As this relationship is exponential, scaling relations give a dimensional half-width that scales approximately as $$ \tilde{\delta }_w\approx T_{\frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{\frac{Rd}{nQ\beta }}\text{ km}, $$ where $T_{\frac{1}{2}}$ (K) is the temperature at the midpoint of the layer, R (J mol –1 K –1 ) the gas constant, Q (J mol –1 ) the activation energy and β (K km –1 ) the geothermal gradient. This relation predicts the numerical results for the parameter range consistent with continental rheologies to within 2–5 per cent and shear-zone half-widths from 2 to 6 km. The inclusion of shear-stress heating reduces w by only an additional 5–25 per cent, depending on the initial width of the shear zone. While the width of the shear zone may not decrease significantly, local temperature increases from shear-stress heating range from 50 to 300 °C resulting in a reduction in viscosities beneath the fault of several orders of magnitude and a concomitant reduction in the stresses needed to drive the motion.

Description: A knowledge of subsurface temperatures in sedimentary basins, fault zones, volcanic environments and polar ice sheets is of interest for a wide variety of geophysical applications. However, the process of drilling deep boreholes in these environments to provide access for temperature and other measurements invariably disturbs the temperature field around a newly created borehole. Although this disturbance dissipates over time, most temperature measurements are made while the temperature field is still disturbed. Thus, the measurements must be ‘corrected’ for the drilling-disturbance effect if the undisturbed temperature field is to be determined. This paper provides compact analytical solutions for the thermal drilling disturbance based on 1-D (radial) and 2-D (radial and depth) Green's functions (GFs) in cylindrical coordinates. Solutions are developed for three types of boundary conditions (BCs) at the borehole wall: (1) prescribed temperature, (2) prescribed heat flux and (3) a prescribed convective condition. The BC at the borehole wall is allowed to vary both with depth and time. Inclusion of the depth dimension in the 2-D solution allows vertical heat-transfer effects to be quantified in situations where they are potentially important, that is, near the earth's surface, at the bottom of a well and when considering finite-drilling rates. The 2-D solution also includes a radial- and time-dependent BC at the earth's surface to assess the impact of drilling-related infrastructure (drilling pads, mud pits, permanent shelters) on the subsurface temperature field. Latent-heat effects due to the melting and subsequent refreezing of interstitial ice while drilling a borehole through ice-rich permafrost can be included in the GF solution as a moving-plane heat source (or sink) located at the solid–liquid interface. Synthetic examples are provided illustrating the 1-D and 2-D GF solutions. The flexibility of the approach allows the investigation of thermal drilling effects in rock or ice for a wide variety of drilling technologies. Numerical values for the required radial GFs G R are available through the Advanced Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service at doi:10.5065/D64F1NS6.

Description: The elastic properties of homogeneous, isotropic materials are well constrained. However, in heterogeneous and evolving materials, these essential properties are less well-explored. During sintering of volcanic ash particles by viscous processes as well as during compaction and cementation of sediments, microstructure and porosity undergo changes that affect bulk dynamic elastic properties. Here using a model system of glass particles as an analogue for initially granular rock-forming materials, we have determined porosity and P -wave velocity during densification. Using these results, we test models for the kinetics of densification and the resultant evolution of the elastic properties to derive a quantitative description of the coupling between the kinetics of isotropic densification and the evolving dynamic elastic moduli. We demonstrate the power of the resultant model on a wide range of data for non-coherent sediments as well as sedimentary and volcanic rocks. We propose that such constraints be viewed as an essential ingredient of time-dependent models for the deformation of evolving materials in volcanoes and sedimentary basins.

Description: Following earlier studies, we present forward and inverse simulations of heat and fluid transport of the upper crust using a local 3-D model of the Kola area. We provide best estimates for palaeotemperatures and permeabilities, their errors and their dependencies. Our results allow discriminating between the two mentioned processes to a certain extent, partly resolving the non-uniqueness of the problem. We find clear indications for a significant contribution of advective heat transport, which, in turn, imply only slightly lower ground surface temperatures during the last glacial maximum relative to the present value. These findings are consistent with the general background knowledge of (i) the fracture zones and the corresponding fluid movements in the bedrock and (ii) the glacial history of the Kola area.

Description: We performed complex conductivity measurements on 28 core samples from the hole drilled for the Humu'ula Groundwater Research Project (Hawai'i Island, HI, USA). The complex conductivity measurements were performed at 4 different pore water conductivities (0.07, 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0, and 10 S m –1 prepared with NaCl) over the frequency range 1 mHz to 45 kHz at 22 ± 1 °C. The in-phase conductivity data are plotted against the pore water conductivity to determine, sample by sample, the intrinsic formation factor and the surface conductivity. The intrinsic formation factor is related to porosity by Archie's law with an average value of the cementation exponent m of 2.45, indicating that only a small fraction of the connected pore space controls the transport properties. Both the surface and quadrature conductivities are found to be linearly related to the cation exchange capacity of the material, which was measured with the cobalt hexamine chloride method. Surface and quadrature conductivities are found to be proportional to each other like for sedimentary siliclastic rocks. A Stern layer polarization model is used to explain these experimental results. Despite the fact that the samples contain some magnetite (up to 5 per cent wt.), we were not able to identify the effect of this mineral on the complex conductivity spectra. These results are very encouraging in showing that galvanometric induced polarization measurements can be used in volcanic areas to separate the bulk from the surface conductivity and therefore to define some alteration attributes. Such a goal cannot be achieved with resistivity alone.