Materials science for structural geology / Материаловедение для структурной геологии

Interest in the plastic deformation of rocks arises mainly from its application in the Earth sciences, especially in structural geology and tectonics. Its experimental study has consequently been pursued mainly in laboratories associated with geology or geophysics departments or institutes. However, the physical mechanisms involved are of considerable interest in materials science and some workers in the field of rock deformation have had a materials science affiliation.

There are a number of aspects to the study of rock deformation, including
• Establishment of the rheological laws for the rocks, that is, the stress-strain-time relationships under particular conditions,
• Mechanisms of the deformation and the relationship between these and the specific rheological laws and microstructural features of the rock,
• Role of environmental variables (pressure, temperature, chemical activities, pore pressure) on the deformation behaviour,
• Development of fabric and multi-grain structural features on scales accessible in the laboratory, e.g. crystallographic preferred orientations, cleavages, microfolding, metamorphic differentiation, etc.,

• Relation of the deformation aspects to petrological and other aspects of the rock, involving questions of influence of stress or strain on phase transformation and stabilities, rates of metamorphic change, preservation of the setting of radioactive clocks. <...>