Reaction‐Gated Transient Permeability in Ductile Shear Zones
Sanislav, Ioan, Kumar, Avish, and Sami, Mabrouk (2026) Reaction‐Gated Transient Permeability in Ductile Shear Zones. Geophysical Research Letters, 53 (18). e2026GL125871.
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Abstract
Ductile shear zones act as transient pathways for crustal fluids, yet the conditions under which their connected porosity becomes sufficient to conduct are not well constrained. We present a porosity balance in which connected porosity evolves under three competing processes: creation by creep cavitation, creation by metamorphic reaction, and thermally activated closure. The model is constrained by existing experimental data, and permeability is linked to porosity through a percolation law with a sharp threshold. Within this constrained model, creep cavitation alone produces a steady-state porosity orders of magnitude below the threshold at natural strain rates. A net reaction-driven porosity source resolves this gap, and the critical net porosity-production rate required to reach the threshold is geologically reasonable. Ductile shear-zone permeability is therefore likely transient and reaction-gated, with deformation alone unable to sustain connectivity at natural rates.
| Item ID: | 94074 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1944-8007 |
| Copyright Information: | © 2026 The Author(s). Geophysical Research Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2026 05:06 |
| FoR Codes: | 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3705 Geology > 370511 Structural geology and tectonics @ 55% 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3703 Geochemistry > 370301 Exploration geochemistry @ 20% 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3705 Geology > 370503 Igneous and metamorphic petrology @ 25% |
| SEO Codes: | 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280107 Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences @ 100% |
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