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Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation

Rock domes, with their onion-skin layers of exfoliation sheets, are among the most captivating landforms on Earth. Long recognized as integral in shaping domes, the exact mechanism(s) by which exfoliation occurs remains enigmatic, mainly due to the lack of direct observations of natural events. In A...

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Autores principales: Collins, Brian D., Stock, Greg M., Eppes, Martha-Cary, Lewis, Scott W., Corbett, Skye C., Smith, Joel B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5823905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29472534
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02728-1
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author Collins, Brian D.
Stock, Greg M.
Eppes, Martha-Cary
Lewis, Scott W.
Corbett, Skye C.
Smith, Joel B.
author_facet Collins, Brian D.
Stock, Greg M.
Eppes, Martha-Cary
Lewis, Scott W.
Corbett, Skye C.
Smith, Joel B.
author_sort Collins, Brian D.
collection PubMed
description Rock domes, with their onion-skin layers of exfoliation sheets, are among the most captivating landforms on Earth. Long recognized as integral in shaping domes, the exact mechanism(s) by which exfoliation occurs remains enigmatic, mainly due to the lack of direct observations of natural events. In August 2014, during the hottest days of summer, a granitic dome in California, USA, spontaneously exfoliated; witnesses observed extensive cracking, including a ~8000 kg sheet popping into the air. Subsequent exfoliation episodes during the following two summers were recorded by instrumentation that captured—for the first time—exfoliation deformation and stress conditions. Here we show that thermal cycling and cumulative dome surface heating can induce subcritical cracking that culminates in seemingly spontaneous exfoliation. Our results indicate that thermal stresses—largely discounted in dome formation literature—can play a key role in triggering exfoliation and therefore may be an important control for shaping domes worldwide.
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spelling pubmed-58239052018-02-26 Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation Collins, Brian D. Stock, Greg M. Eppes, Martha-Cary Lewis, Scott W. Corbett, Skye C. Smith, Joel B. Nat Commun Article Rock domes, with their onion-skin layers of exfoliation sheets, are among the most captivating landforms on Earth. Long recognized as integral in shaping domes, the exact mechanism(s) by which exfoliation occurs remains enigmatic, mainly due to the lack of direct observations of natural events. In August 2014, during the hottest days of summer, a granitic dome in California, USA, spontaneously exfoliated; witnesses observed extensive cracking, including a ~8000 kg sheet popping into the air. Subsequent exfoliation episodes during the following two summers were recorded by instrumentation that captured—for the first time—exfoliation deformation and stress conditions. Here we show that thermal cycling and cumulative dome surface heating can induce subcritical cracking that culminates in seemingly spontaneous exfoliation. Our results indicate that thermal stresses—largely discounted in dome formation literature—can play a key role in triggering exfoliation and therefore may be an important control for shaping domes worldwide. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-02-22 /pmc/articles/PMC5823905/ /pubmed/29472534 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02728-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Collins, Brian D.
Stock, Greg M.
Eppes, Martha-Cary
Lewis, Scott W.
Corbett, Skye C.
Smith, Joel B.
Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
title Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
title_full Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
title_fullStr Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
title_full_unstemmed Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
title_short Thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
title_sort thermal influences on spontaneous rock dome exfoliation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5823905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29472534
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02728-1
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