Valérie Vidal

Mantle Flow Drives the Subsidence of Oceanic Plates

Sinking Sea Floors The depths of ocean bottoms are constantly fluctuating at a very slow rate in response to the generation (at mid-ocean ridges) and consumption (at subduction zones) of sea-floor material. Because older sea floor is susceptible to sinking as it cools, it has been assumed that sea-floor depth varies directly with its age. However, Adam and Vidal (p. 83; see the Perspective by Tolstoy) now show that the depth of the Pacific Ocean actually varies in response to the mantle underlying the oceanic crust. This effect is clear when sea-floor depth was measured along lithospheric flow lines—which represent the movement of oceanic crust triggered by mantle convection. Because the ocean bottom does not flatten as predicted by previous models, there is no need to invoke any additional heat supply to sustain old oceanic crust in thermal models of the mantle. Sea-floor depth varies as a function of convection of the underlying mantle, rather than the age of oceanic crust. The subsidence of the sea floor is generally considered a consequence of its passive cooling and densifying since its formation at the ridge and is therefore regarded as a function of lithospheric age only. However, the lithosphere is defined as the thermal boundary layer of mantle convection, which should thus determine its structure. We examined the evolution of the lithosphere structure and depth along trajectories representative of the underlying mantle flow. We show that along these flow lines, the sea-floor depth varies as the square root of the distance from the ridge (as given by the boundary-layer equation) along the entire plate, without any flattening. Contrary to previous models, no additional heat supply is required at the base of the lithosphere.

Intermittent outgassing through a non-Newtonian fluid.

We report an experimental study of the intermittent dynamics of a gas flowing through a column of a non-Newtonian fluid. In a given range of the imposed constant flow rate, the system spontaneously alternates between two regimes: bubbles emitted at the bottom either rise independently one from the other or merge to create a winding flue which then connects the bottom air entrance to the free surface. The observations are reminiscent of the spontaneous changes in the degassing regime observed on volcanoes and suggest that, in the nature, such a phenomenon is likely to be governed by the non-Newtonian properties of the magma. We focus on the statistical distribution of the lifespans of the bubbling and flue regimes in the intermittent steady state. The bubbling regime exhibits a characteristic time whereas, interestingly, the flue lifespan displays a decaying power-law distribution. The associated exponent, which is significantly smaller than the value 1.5 often reported experimentally and predicted in some standard intermittency scenarios, depends on the fluid properties and can be interpreted as the ratio of two characteristic times of the system.

Dynamics of crater formations in immersed granular materials.

We report the formation of a crater at the free surface of an immersed granular bed, locally crossed by an ascending gas flow. In two dimensions, the crater consists of two piles which develop around the location of the gas emission. We observe that the typical size of the crater increases logarithmically with time, independently of the gas emission dynamics. We describe the related granular flows and give an account of the influence of the experimental parameters, especially of the grain size and of the gas flow.

Heat flow variations on a slowly accreting ridge: Constraints on the hydrothermal and conductive cooling for the Lucky Strike segment (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 37°N)

We report 157 closely spaced heat flow measurements along the Lucky Strike segment in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) for ages of the ocean floor between 0 and 11 Ma. On the eastern flank of a volcanic plateau delimiting off-axis and axial domains, the magnitude of heat flow either conforms to the predictions of conductive lithospheric cooling models or is affected by localized anomalies. On the western flank it is uniformly lower than conductive model predictions. We interpret the observed patterns of heat flow by lateral fluid circulation in a highly permeable oceanic basement. The circulation geometries are probably 3-D rather than 2-D and are determined by the configuration of the basement/sediment interface and the distribution of effectively unsedimented seamounts where water recharge can occur. Two major hydrothermal circulation systems can possibly explain the observations off-axis: the first would involve lateral pore water flow from west to east, and the second would have a reverse flow direction. The wavelengths and magnitudes of heat flow anomalies require Darcy velocities of the order of 1–4 m/year, which are similar to those proposed for fast-accreted crust elsewhere. However, a large proportion of this MAR domain remains unaffected by hydrothermal cooling, which is a relatively unusual observation but confirms the validity of conductive thermal models for seafloor ages between 5 and 10 Ma. Closer to the ridge axis (<5 Myr old crust), water circulation affects the overall axial domain, as larger proportions of basement are exposed. As much as 80–90% of the heat flux from the axial domain may be transferred to the Lucky Strike vent field, in agreement with the estimated discharge.

Influence of non‐Newtonian rheology on magma degassing

Many volcanoes exhibit temporal changes in their degassing process, from rapid gas puffing to lava fountaining and long-lasting quiescent passive degassing periods. This range of behaviors has been explained in terms of changes in gas flux and/or magma input rate. We report here a simple laboratory experiment which shows that the non- Newtonian rheology of magma can be responsible, alone, for such intriguing behavior, even in a stationary gas flux regime. We inject a constant gas flow-rate Q at the bottom of a non-Newtonian fluid column, and demonstrate the existence of a critical flow rate Q* above which the system spontaneously alternates between a bubbling and a channeling regime, where a gas channel crosses the entire fluid column. The threshold Q* depends on the fluid rheological properties which are controlled, in particular, by the gas volume fraction (or void fraction) {\phi}. When {\phi} increases, Q* decreases and the degassing regime changes. Non-Newtonian properties of magma might therefore play a crucial role in volcanic eruption dynamics.

Avalanche-like fluidization of a non-Brownian particle gel

We report on the fluidization dynamics of an attractive gel composed of non-Brownian particles made of fused silica colloids. Extensive rheology coupled to ultrasonic velocimetry allows us to characterize the global stress response together with the local dynamics of the gel during shear startup experiments. In practice, after being rejuvenated by a preshear, the gel is left to age for a time tw before being subjected to a constant shear rate [small gamma, Greek, dot above]. We investigate in detail the effects of both tw and [small gamma, Greek, dot above] on the fluidization dynamics and build a detailed state diagram of the gel response to shear startup flows. The gel may display either transient shear banding towards complete fluidization or steady-state shear banding. In the former case, we unravel that the progressive fluidization occurs by successive steps that appear as peaks on the global stress relaxation signal. Flow imaging reveals that the shear band grows until complete fluidization of the material by sudden avalanche-like events which are distributed heterogeneously along the vorticity direction and correlated to large peaks in the slip velocity at the moving wall. These features are robust over a wide range of tw and [small gamma, Greek, dot above] values, although the very details of the fluidization scenario vary with [small gamma, Greek, dot above]. Finally, the critical shear rate [small gamma, Greek, dot above]* that separates steady-state shear-banding from steady-state homogeneous flow depends on the width of the shear cell and exhibits a nonlinear dependence with tw. Our work brings about valuable experimental data on transient flows of attractive dispersions, highlighting the subtle interplay between shear, wall slip and aging whose modeling constitutes a major challenge that has not been met yet.

Granular friction: Triggering large events with small vibrations

Triggering large-scale motion by imposing vibrations to a system can be encountered in many situations, from daily-life shaking of saltcellar to silo unclogging or dynamic earthquakes triggering. In the well-known situation of solid or granular friction, the acceleration of imposed vibrations has often been proposed as the governing parameter for the transition between stick-slip motion and continuous sliding. The threshold acceleration for the onset of continuous slip motion or system unjamming is usually found of the order of the gravitational acceleration. These conclusions are mostly drawn from numerical studies. Here, we investigate, in the laboratory, granular friction by shearing a layer of grains subjected to horizontal vibrations. We show that, in contrast with previous results, the quantity that controls the frictional properties is the characteristic velocity, and not the acceleration, of the imposed mechanical vibrations. Thus, when the system is statically loaded, the typical acceleration of the vibrations which trigger large slip events is much smaller than the gravitational acceleration. These results may be relevant to understand dynamic earthquake triggering by small ground perturbations.

Experimental modeling of infrasound emission from slug bursting on volcanoes

The acoustic signal produced by gas slugs bursting at volcano vents is investigated by means of laboratory experiments. In order to explore the transition between linear and nonlinear acoustics, we model the bubble by an overpressurized cylindrical cavity closed by a membrane. We find that the acoustic waveform inside and outside the cavity, produced by the membrane bursting, is well described by the linear acoustics equations and a monopole source model up to an initial overpressure inside the cavity of about 24 kPa. For higher overpressure, the amplitude inside the conduit is smaller than the linear prediction, whereas the amplitude measured outside is larger. The frequency content remains harmonic, even at high initial overpressure. Changing the bursting depth in the conduit does not change the scaling of the amplitudes but affects the waveform and energy partitioning. We show that the energy of the first signal period is about 30% of the total acoustic energy and can be used as a good estimate, with a geometrical correction to account for the bursting depth.

Gas-induced fluidization of mobile liquid-saturated grains

Gas invasion in liquid-saturated sands exhibits different morphologies and dynamics. For mobile beds, the repeated rise of gas through the layer leads to the growth of a fluidized zone, which reaches a stationary shape. Here, we present experimental results characterizing the evolution of the fluidized region as a function of the gas-flow rate and grain size. We introduce a new observable, the flow density, which quantifies the motion of the grains in the system. The growth of the fluidized zone is characterized by a spatiotemporal analysis, which provides the stabilization time, τ(s). In the stationary regime, we report two main contributions to motion in the fluidized region: the central gas rise and a convective granular motion. Interestingly, a static model with a fixed porous network accounts for the final shape of the invasion zone. We propose an explanation where the initial gas invasion weakens the system and fixes since the early stage the morphology of the fluidized zone.

Flow and fracture in water-saturated, unconstrained granular beds

The injection of gas in a liquid-saturated granular bed gives rise to a wide variety of invasion patterns. Many studies have focused on constrained porous media, in which the grains are fixed in the bed and only the interstitial fluid flows when the gas invades the system. With a free upper boundary, however, the grains can be entrained by the ascending gas or fluid motion, and the competition between the upward motion of grains and sedimentation leads to new patterns. We propose a brief review of the experimental investigation of the dynamics of air rising through a water-saturated, unconstrained granular bed, in both two and three dimensions. After describing the invasion pattern at short and long time, a tentative regime-diagram is proposed. We report original results showing a dependence of the fluidized zone shape, at long times, on the injection flow rate and grain size. A method based on image analysis makes it possible to detect not only the fluidized zone profile in the stationary regime, but also to follow the transient dynamics of its formation. Finally, we describe the degassing dynamics inside the fluidized zone, in the stationary regime. Depending on the experimental conditions, regular bubbling, continuous degassing, intermittent regime or even spontaneous flow-to-fracture transition are observed.