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Superplasticity in Geological Materials

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Abstract

The term “superplasticity” is taken as meaning high-strain-rate-sensitivity flow when it is used in geological contexts involving predominantly compressive stress states. Such flow has been observed in calcite and olivine polycrystalline aggregates in laboratory tests and the mechanism deduced to be diffusion-controlled granular flow. From microstructural observations, similar deformation processes are inferred to have occurred in a number of geological situations. On the basis of extrapolation from experiment to geology, superplastic flow might be expected under some geological conditions in calcite and olivine rocks at grain sizes approaching the order of one millimetre, while there are indications that the grain size limit for quartzites may be rather smaller. However, the knowledge of superplasticity in most rocks is still very fragmentary, especially in regard to mechanisms where a fluid phase may be involved, as in porous rocks.

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Acknowledgement

The Geologisches Institut and the Mineralogishes und Petrologisches Institut of the Eidgenosische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, generously supported me as a guest professor during the writing of this paper. Conversations with David Olgaard, Lisa Dellangelo and Stefan Schmid were also of much help and stimulation.

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  1. M. S. Paterson

    Present address: Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, 2601, Australia

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  1. Geologisches Institut, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland

    M. S. Paterson

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Paterson, M.S. Superplasticity in Geological Materials. MRS Online Proceedings Library 196, 303–312 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-196-303

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