Growth and characterization of complex mineral surfaces

Sculpting of Rocks by Reactive Fluids

“…From a purely geometric perspective, terrace patterns can be produced by a surface normal growth model based on the assumption that the growth rate is proportional to the local slope ( Fig. 4.3; Jettestuen et al, 2006). Clearly, there can be no pattern formation if the initial slope is perfectly flat and smooth because the growth rate is then constant across the surface.…”

“…In their study of growth of rough surfaces, Jettestuen et al (2006) enforced nucleation events at random locations and times, leading to natural looking botryoidal growth patterns (Fig. 3.4).…”

“…If there is no stochastic (random) component, and for a simple surface that can be described by an elevation, h, above a plane, we can describe the system by a purely geometric surface normal growth (SNG) model (Jettestuen et al, 2006):…”

“…The emergence of patterns in such systems is not trivial and intuition often fails us. Our group and the group of Nigel Goldenfeld at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have studied travertine terracing in detail using a fruitful combination of field observation, laboratory experiments and computer modelling (Jettestuen et al, 2006;Goldenfeld et al, 2006;Veysey and Goldenfeld 2008;Hammer et al, 2007;2008;2010). A particularly interesting aspect of this work was the way in which we attacked the problem at many different levels of abstraction, in order to answer several types of questions.…”

“…3.4). If the growth has not proceeded too far, obliterating previous botryoids, it is possible to simulate the process in reverse in order to reconstruct the timing and spatial distribution of nucleation events (Jettestuen et al, 2006).…”