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Instabilities and finger formation in replacement fronts driven by an oversaturated solution
Author(s) -
Kondratiuk Paweł,
Tredak Hanna,
Upadhyay Virat,
Ladd Anthony J. C.,
Szymczak Piotr
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.983
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 2169-9356
pISSN - 2169-9313
DOI - 10.1002/2017jb014169
Subject(s) - instability , dissolution , context (archaeology) , front (military) , porosity , pattern formation , geology , wavelength , carbonate , mechanics , materials science , physics , chemical engineering , geotechnical engineering , optics , paleontology , engineering , oceanography , biology , metallurgy , genetics
We consider a simple model of infiltration‐driven mineral replacement, in which the chemical coupling between precipitation and dissolution leads to the appearance of a reaction front advancing into the system. Such fronts are usually accompanied by a local increase of porosity. We analyze the linear stability of the replacement front to establish whether such a localized porosity increase can lead to global instability and pattern formation in these systems. We find that for a wide range of control parameters such fronts are unstable. However, both short‐ and long‐wavelength perturbations are stabilized, whereas in a purely dissolutional instability only short wavelengths are stable. We analyze the morphologies of the dissolution patterns emerging in the later stages of the evolution of the system, when the dynamics are beyond the linear regime. Implications of these results for the natural systems are discussed, particularly in the context of karst formation in terra rossa‐covered carbonate bedrock.