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experimental tectonophysics
Author(s) -
Handin John,
Logan J. M.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl008i007p00647
Subject(s) - classification of discontinuities , tectonophysics , overburden , rock mass classification , geology , natural (archaeology) , sampling (signal processing) , geophysics , physics , geotechnical engineering , paleontology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , detector , optics
Because virtually all tectonophysical processes are masked by the overburden, or occur too slowly for adequate observation in anthropocentric time, or both, they must be studied in carefully controlled laboratory experiments that simulate the natural environment as realistically as is practicable. Extrapolations of laboratory data in space and time are invalid unless the experimental and natural phenomenologies are essentially the same. The size of conventional specimens is of the order of 10 cm, whereas the discontinuities (defects in a continuum) in real rock‐masses are often much larger, of the order of l m of more. Furthermore, such discontinuities as macrofractures (joints) may well dominate the mechanical and fluid‐transport properties in nature. Adequate sampling of rock‐mass properties will probably always require in‐situ testing, but testing machines much larger than any now available could provide useful data at least at intermediate scale.