Self-Organized Megastructures in Sedimentary Basins

The overall theme of the project is to develop a quantitative understanding of basin reaction/transport/mechanical (RTM) processes on a broad range of scales. Our approach starts with the development of novel formulations of the basic RTM process rate laws (e.g. rock deformation, texture dynamics, and fracturing). We then set forth algorithms for solving the resulting partial differential equations numerically. As many of the parameters in the subsurface are not well known, we embed the entire approach in a probabilistic framework through information theory. The result is a set of novel software and conceptual papers that have been the first quantitative theory of a number of fundamental phenomena that take into account the full RTM dynamics of these systems