Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : Clay shale landscapes are sensitive to landslide, erosion, and re-sedimentation processes. In this context, tectonized clay shales have peculiar hydrological and mechanical behaviours. In order to improve our understanding of the processes involved in such systems, an experimental site has been settled in the Draix Observatory (ORE DRAIX) on a black marl hill slope of the Southern Alps (France) in the framework of the ECOU-PREF project. The site is a natural laboratory to study the evolution of clay shale landscapes at several scales (regional to µm). In this study, we aim to characterize the internal structure and fissure patterns of a stable interfluve, in order to locate preferential water flows within the system, and anticipate its evolution. This work is based on a series of mutli-disciplinary approaches including petrophysical analyses, well pulse injection tests and downhole geophysical measurements. Borehole geophysical results were combined with laboratory measurements on core plugs (permeability, density, porosity, and acoustic velocity). Optical and acoustical images have been used as an original tool for internal discontinuities characterisation and potential active flow path detection. They allowed the identification of three main lithological units interpreted as several stages of shale alteration. In addition, several main structural plane discontinuities (open fractures, schistosity planes, and fractures infilled with calcite or clays) were identified from the images and their potential transmissivity discussed with regard to piezometric and tracer measurements. In all, the integration of measurements leads to propose a simple scenario of fluid circulation and chemical alteration of the interfluve.
ISSN: 0885-6087

hal-00757581
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00757581
DOI : 10.1002/hyp.7997

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Torsion experiments (inline image =3 × 10−4 s−1) were performed to investigate the large strain (γmax = 15) rheology on quartz-muscovite aggregate as analogue to pelitic rocks undergoing melting and crystallization during deformation at 300 MPa confining pressure and 750°C temperature. Microstructures reveal four distinct but gradational stages of crystal-melt interactions during deformation--(a) solid state deformation, (b) initiation and domination of partial melting, (c) simultaneous partial melting and crystallization, and (d) domination of crystallization. The microstructural stages are linked to the rheology of the deforming samples. Partial melting starts at relatively low finite shear strains (γ = 1-3) showing approximately 60% strain softening. At γ = 4-10 the partially molten bulk material shows a steady state flow at low stress. Further crystallization of new crystals at the expense of melt between γ = 10 and 15 causes weak strain hardening until the material fails by developing brittle fractures. The stress exponent (n), calculated at γ = 1, 5, and 10, increases from ∼ 3 to ∼ 43, indicating a transition from power to power law breakdown or exponential flow of the bulk system. Hydrostatic experiments for equivalent times and conditions of the torsion experiments were also conducted to evaluate the reaction kinetics and microstructures under static conditions. The new experimental data establish that partially molten rock does not flow according to a constant strain rate-dependent power law (steady state) rheology. The rheological transition from strain rate sensitive to strain rate insensitive flow is interpreted as a function of melt-crystal ratio, their mutual interactions, and the evolution of microstructures in the partially molten rock.
ISSN: 0148-0227

hal-01053709
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01053709
DOI : 10.1002/2013JB010777