Pd. Bons et Bp. Van Milligen, New experiment to model self-organized critical transport and accumulationof melt and hydrocarbons from their source rocks, GEOLOGY, 29(10), 2001, pp. 919-922
A new, simple, and easily reproducible experiment eras designed to simulate
the production, accumulation, and transport of melt within rock. The trans
port was found to be of the self-organized critical type. The emergence of
self-organized criticality is explained by the availability of hydrofractur
e propagation as a rapid or ballistic transport mechanism. This mechanism a
lso serves as a mechanism for stepwise accumulation. These findings are con
firmed by a numerical model, which shows the emergence of self-organized cr
itical behavior when Darcian transport cannot accommodate transport and the
dormant transport mechanism of hydrofracture propagation is activated. Bal
listic and self-organized critical transport may play a significant role in
the transport and accumulation of geological fluids, such as melt and hydr
ocarbons. This conclusion has a profound impact on the modeling of many tra
nsport processes in geology (e.g., accumulation of melt, oil, and gas).