Publications related to Earth's crust

Fluid flow through microcracked and fractured granitic reservoirs

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Lucille Jocelyne Nadine Carbillet, Michael Heap

The permeability of crustal rocks and rock-masses dictates the efficiency of hydrothermal circulation and therefore the productivity of geothermal resources. In this study, we find by monitoring P-wave velocity that thermal microcracking in Lanhélin granit ...

2023

Understanding the growth mechanism of BaZrS3 chalcogenide perovskite thin films from sulfurized oxide precursors

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Andrea Giunto, Santhanu Panikar Ramanandan, Mirjana Dimitrievska, Iléane Tiphaine Françoise Marie Lefevre

Barium zirconium sulfide (BaZrS3) is an earth-abundant and environmentally friendly chalcogenide perovskite with promising properties for various energy conversion applications. Recently, sulfurization of oxide precursors has been suggested as a viable sol ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023

On the effects of fluid pressure variations on rock-mass and fault mechanical behaviour

Corentin Jean-Marie Rémi Noël

In the past 20 years, the growing interest in deep geo-reservoirs for purposes such as carbon storage, waste water disposal, or geothermal energy exploitation have led to large-volume fluid injections into the upper continental crust. These fluid injection ...

EPFL2021

The Effects of Planetary and Stellar Parameters on Brittle Lithospheric Thickness

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Michael Heap

The thicknesss of the brittle lithosphere—the outer portion of a planetary body that fails via fracturing— plays a key role in the geological processes of that body. The properties of both a planet and its host star can influence that thickness, and the po ...

2021

PyFrac: A planar 3D hydraulic fracture simulator

Brice Tanguy Alphonse Lecampion, Haseeb Zia

Fluid driven fractures propagate in the upper earth crust either naturally or in response to engineeredfluid injections. The quantitative prediction of their evolution is critical in order to better understandtheir dynamics as well as to optimize their cre ...

2020

Fault Stability Across the Seismogenic Zone

François Xavier Thibault Passelègue

Across the seismogenic zone, the transition from brittle to plastic deformation corresponds to a semibrittle regime where brittle fracturing and plastic flow coexist at high strength conditions. Thorough experimental investigations on brittle-plastic trans ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2020

Propagation of fluid driven fractures in transversely isotropic material

Fatima-Ezzahra Moukhtari

The propagation of fluid driven fractures is used in a number of industrial applications (well stimulation of unconventional reservoirs, development of deep geothermal systems) but also occurs naturally (magmatic dyke intrusion). While the mechanics of hyd ...

EPFL2020

Growth and characterisation of earth-abundant semiconductor nanostructures for solar energy harvesting

Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall

Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) is a compound semiconductor based on earth-abundant elements with functional properties ideal for solar cell applications. Cheap, abundant, and renewable energy sources are increasingly imperative due to the imminent threat posed by ...

EPFL2020

Variations in elastic and electrical properties of crustal rocks with varying degree of microfracturation

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Lucas Xan Pimienta, Luis Felipe Orellana Espinoza

This work aims at investigating the effect of varying degrees of microfracturing on the joint elastic and electrical transport properties of rocks. Different crustal rocks were subjected to Thermal Treatment, expected to induce microfracturing, up to diffe ...

2019

Discovery of a self-healing catalyst for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

Emad Oveisi, Mounir Driss Mensi, Fatmah Ebrahim, Kyriakos Stylianou, Ngoc Tú Nguyên, Andrzej Gladysiak, Bardiya Valizadeh, Fatma Pelin Uran

Sustainable catalysts based on earth-abundant elements are considered as economical alternatives to precious-metal-bearing catalysts and could be impactful for many applications. Self-healing sustainable catalysts, which in addition to their 'green' charac ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2019

Multiple morphologies and functionality of nanowires made from earth-abundant zinc phosphide

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Thomas La Grange, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Nicolas Tappy, Rajrupa Paul, Reza Zamani

Semiconductors made of earth-abundant elements, such as zinc phosphide, have the potential to substitute less abundant, highly functional compound semiconductors such as InAs or InP. Compound semiconductors in the form of nanowires could revolutionise appl ...

2020

Solvent-induced surface hydroxylation of a layered perovskite Sr3FeCoO7−δ for enhanced oxygen evolution catalysis

Xile Hu, Fang Song, Jun Gu, Xiang Xu, Kongliang Xu

Efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts made of earth abundant elements are essential for the cost-effective generation of solar fuels. Surface modification is a novel strategy to enhance the activity of OER catalysts, however, it is commonly d ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2018

Cubic zirconia in >2370◦C impact melt records Earth’s hottest crust

Cyril Cayron

Bolide impacts influence primordial evolution of planetary bodies because they can cause instantaneous melting and vaporization of both crust and impactors. Temperatures reached by impact-generated silicate melts are unknown because meteorite impacts are e ...

Elsevier2017

Porosity evolution at the brittle-ductile transition in the continental crust: Implications for deep hydro-geothermal circulation

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Mateo Alejandro Acosta, Michael Heap

Recently, projects have been proposed to engineer deep geothermal reservoirs in the ductile crust. To examine their feasibility, we performed high-temperature (up to 1000 degrees C), high-pressure (130 MPa) triaxial experiments on granite (initially-intact ...

Springer Nature2017

The importance of mantle wedge heterogeneity to subduction zone magmatism and the origin of EM1

Stéphane Laurent Escrig

The composition of the convecting asthenospheric mantle that feeds the mantle wedge can be investigated via rear-arc lavas that have minimal slab influence. This "ambient mantle wedge" composition (the composition of the wedge prior to the addition of a sl ...

Elsevier2017

A strategy for an accurate estimation of the basal permittivity in the Martian North Polar Layered Deposits

This paper deals with the investigation of the Mars subsurface by means of data collected by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding working at few megahertz frequencies. A data processing strategy, which combines a simple inversion ...

Wiley2017

Parental arc magma compositions dominantly controlled by mantle-wedge thermal structure

Stéphane Laurent Escrig

The processes that lead to the fourfold variation in arc-averaged compositions of mafic arc iavas remain controversial. Control by the mantle-wedge thermal structure is supported by chemical correlations with the thickness of the underlying arc crust(1-3), ...

Nature Publishing Group2016

Advanced methodology for optimization of mixture design of asphalt concrete containing reclaimed asphalt pavement material

Sara Bressi

Despite the massive use of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) production, the chemo-physical phenomena that characterise the fabrication of these mixtures have not yet been completely explored. The detection and understanding of thes ...

EPFL2016

Chemical Characterisation of Deep Earth Reservoirs

Hélène Marie Piet

Seismic imaging of the internal Earth has emphasized the inhomogeneity of its mantle. This interface layer of nearly 3000 km surrounding the central metallic core conducts heat released from the latter, which played a significant role in shaping the actual ...

EPFL2016

Crustal differentiation in the early solar system: Clues from the unique achondrite Northwest Africa 7325 (NWA 7325)

Philippe Gillet

The unique achondrite NWA 7325 is an unusual olivine gabbro composed chiefly of calcic plagioclase (An(85-93)), diopsidic pyroxene (En(50.1-54.0) Wo(44.8-49.3) Fs(0.6-1.3)), and forsteritic olivine (Fo(97)). It is Al and Mg-rich and Fe and Na-poor and disp ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2015