2024/12/25 by Cartwright, Julyan H. E., Cockell, Charles S., Goehring, Lucas +12 · 1 citation
#Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.18999
Geological materials are often seen as the antithesis of soft; rocks are hard. However, during the formation of minerals and rocks, all the systems we shall discuss, indeed geological materials in general, pass through a stage where they are soft. This occurs either because they are at a high temperature -- igneous or metamorphic rock -- or because they are at a lower temperature but in the presence of water -- sedimentary rock. For this reason it is useful to introduce soft-matter concepts into the geological domain. There is a universality in the diverse instances of geological patterns that may be appreciated by looking at the common aspect in their formation of having passed through a stage as soft matter.