R. Moerig et al., SEISMIC ATTENUATION IN ARTIFICIAL GLASS CRACKS - PHYSICAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL EFFECTS OF FLUIDS, Geophysical research letters, 23(16), 1996, pp. 2053-2056
Attenuation and stiffness of artificial, fluid containing cracks are m
easured from 3 mHz to 10 Hz. The cracks are wedge-shaped; made from gl
ass microscope slides. To explain the frequency dependence of both the
attenuation and the stiffness (akin to a modulus), we need to appeal
to well known fluid flow mechanisms and to the physicochemical interac
tion between the fluid and crack surface. By altering the wettability
of the crack surfaces, surfactants change the mobility of water and th
ereby change the frequency dependence of the fluid flow effects by sev
eral orders of magnitude.