The upcoming Gordon Research Conference on Rock Deformation will highlight
the "Role of Water in Rock Deformation."
This conference will be held at Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley,
Massachusetts) August 8-13, 2004 and will be preceded by a field trip
examining outcrops with evidence of fluid-assisted deformation.
The dynamic nature of the solid Earth depends in large part on
interactions with fluids. Just as water facilitates mass transport,
speeds up reaction kinetics, and promotes melting of silicates, water
assists in the fracture, friction, and flow of rocks. Stresses required
for deformation are depressed by a number of fluid-rock interactions with
implications for tectonics, slip and stability of faults, diagenesis, and
creep in the mantle. This conference is intended to examine advances in
our understanding of water weakening, fluid-rock interactions and hydrous
defects, and to explore the consequences for mechanical properties of
offshore sediments, faults, lithosphere, and deep mantle of a wet Earth.
The goal of the 2004 Gordon Conference on Rock Deformation will be to
examine new developments in our understanding of the fundamental processes
by which water influences mechanical properties of rocks and the geologic
and geophysical implications of water weakening. This conference will
feature 21 talks by leading scientists in fields of rock mechanics,
tectonics, geochemistry, petrology, mineral physics, and materials
science, who will speak to advances in our understanding of water
weakening mechanisms, the occurrence of fluids in the Earth, fluid
interactions with rocks, and applications to deformation in the Earth.
These talks will serve to initiate discussion, both in formal sessions and
during afternoons that are reserved for the free exchange of ideas. Two
poster sessions are scheduled to allow all participants to present their
latest results and ideas. We invite participation by observational,
experimental, and theoretical geoscientists from academia, government
labs, and industry, and especially by students and postdocs who will carry
out future investigations of the questions raised in discussion.
A field trip highlighting fluid-assisted deformation will be organized and
led by Drs. Scott Johnson and Charles Guidotti (University of Maine) and
Mike Williams and Michelle Cooke (University of Massachusetts), just prior
to this Gordon Conference.
This conference will announced in one of the February issues of Science.
If you are interested in attending, please apply early as this conference
will be limited to 135 participants. Applications to attend can be made
on-line at:
http://www.grc.org/attend.htm
Updates and scheduling of this conference and field trip will be posted at:
http://www.tectonique.net/grc/
and additional information can obtained directly from GRC at:
http://www.grc.org/
Mount Holyoke College is easy to reach by way of Logan Airport, Boston,
Massachusetts. GRC-Chartered Buses take participants from Logan Airport
directly to the Mount Holyoke Campus. Information about the campus, GRC
Bus Schedules, and other travel arrangements can be found at:
http://www.grc.org/sites/ma/mhc/mhc.htm
For further questions about this conference, please feel free to e-mail
the Chairs, Andreas Kronenberg (Texas A&M University) at
[log in to unmask], or
Mark Jessell (Universite Paul-Sabatier, Toulouse) at
[log in to unmask]
The field trip is optional but will surely contribute to participants
beginning the conference with first hand observations. Registration and
payment for the field trip will be separate from the Gordon Conference.
Conference Schedule:
Sunday Evening
Rheological Structure of the Lithosphere and Water Weakening
Water and the Oceanic Lithosphere (Greg Hirth)
Water and Structure of Continental Lithosphere (James Jackson)
Monday Morning
Surface Hydration, Fluid Films, Solute Transport and Deformation
Fracture and Frictional Wear in Vacuum and Corrosive Environments (J
Thomas Dickinson)
The Fluid-Crystal Interface and Character of Thin Fluid Films (Jacob
Israelachvili)
Mineral-Fluid Interface and Kinetics of Dissolution and Precipitation
(Susan Brantley)
Diffusive Mass Transport and Creep in Porous Rocks (Francois Renard)
Monday Evening
Poster Session
The Sources, Distribution and Character of Fluids, Fluid Transport,
and Hydrous Defects
Tuesday Morning
Fluids and Deformation at Collisional Boundaries
Fluid Pathways and Slip on Decollements of Accretionary Prisms (J.
Casey Moore)
Deformation and Crack Sealing in Collisional Environments (Don Fisher)
Hydrous Phases and Deformation in Subduction Zones (Brad Hacker)
Dehydration and Seismicity of Subducting Lithosphere (Simon Peacock)
Tuesday Evening
Fluids, Diagenesis and Deformation of Sediments
Scales of Fluid Flow and Diagenesis in Sedimentary Basins (Lori Summa)
Overpressure, Deformation of Marine Sediments and Slope Failure
(Brandon Dugan)
Wednesday Morning
Fluids and Deformation in Fault Zones
Fluid Pressures and Transport in Active Fault Zones (Mark Zoback)
Heating, Weakening and Melting of Wet Fault Gouge during Earthquake
Slip (Jim Rice)
Sources of Fluids and Controls on Mineral Growth and Dissolution in
Faults (Bob Wintsch)
Diffusion, Isotopic Exchange, and Creep of Mylonites (John Farver)
Wednesday Evening
Poster Session
The Coupling of Fluids with Fracture, Friction, and Flow of Rocks
Thursday Morning
Water Weakening and Creep in the Middle to Lower Crust
Water Weakening of Crustal Silicates (Jan Tullis)
Models of Dislocations and Water Defects in Crystalline Solids
(Malcolm Heggie)
Distributions of Water in Metamorphosed and Deformed Rocks and Thin
Films at Grain Boundaries (Satoru Nakashima)
Thursday Evening
Water Weakening and Creep in the Mantle
The Hydrous Component and Deformation of the Upper Mantle and
Transition Zone (Jannick Ingrin)
Whole Mantle Convection and the Hydrous Component (Shun Karato)
best wishes
Andreas Kronenberg & Mark Jessell
--
Mark Jessell
Laboratoire des Mécanismes et Transferts en Géologie
Université Paul-Sabatier, 38 rue des Trente-six Ponts
31400 Toulouse cedex - FRANCE
tel (33) (0)5 61 55 84 04 Fax: (33) (0)5 61 52 05 44
Home Page http://www.tectonique.net/mark/
Gordon Conference http://www.tectonique.net/grc/
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