Intergranular pressure solution in halite aggregates and quartz sands: an experimental investigation

Abstract

This thesis reports an experimental investigation into intergranular pressure solution (IPS) as a compaction mechanism in wet (i.e. brine-saturated) halite aggregates and wet quartz sands. The aims were to determine the compaction behaviour under conditions favouring IPS, to clarify the underlying microscale processes, and to test the applicability of microphysically-based models describing the rate of compaction and deformation of polycrystalline aggregates by IPS. Halite and quartz were studied for the following reasons. Halite is an attractive material to study IPS in the laboratory because of its high solubility and rapid dissolution/precipitation kinetics in water. In the fields of radioactive waste disposal, salt mining and salt tectonics, there is also great interest in the role of IPS in determining the creep behaviour of both salt rock and wet granular salt (i.e. backfill). Quartz sand was studied primarily because of the importance of IPS in reservoir sandstones and low grade crustal tectonites.