Mineral Aggregates in Crystalline Rocks—Bridge between Rock-Forming Components and Physical, Chemical, and Mechanical Properties

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Crystallography and Physical Chemistry of Minerals & Nanominerals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2021) | Viewed by 2762

Special Issue Editors

Département Géosciences, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France
Interests: imaging rock structure; understanding physical and geochemical properties from rock structure/texture
Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Interests: elements’ chemical and physical processes in geomaterials; retardation of radioactive elements in low porous crystalline rock; pore structure and its links to mineralogy
Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Interests: tectonophysics; petrophysics; mineralogy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
Interests: porous media; fluid flow; mass transport; pore structure; pore connectivity; low-permeability media; fracture-matrix interaction; energy geosciences
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crystalline rocks, are classically defined as plutonic rocks, and metamorphic rocks. This rock type is made of an assemblage of crystals which are in tight contact each other. The mineral aggregates (MA) is the set of crystals of a crystalline rock which is made of a certain mineral (K-feldspar for instance), a group of minerals (dark minerals, biotite plus amphibole for instance) or a certain petrographic entity (for instance a clast, or a fracture filling). MA constituting the rock are important to define for those who wants to understand past and present fluid / rock interactions, transport of solutes in water flowing fractures and retardation of elements from flow by diffusion and sorption. Petrophysical properties such as the thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of the rock have to be defined when combined to flow and solute transport.  MA should be characterized in different scales, in terms of intrinsic properties (porosity, geometry of the pore network, alteration state, mineralogical composition ...), in terms of 3D spatial distribution, and also in terms of surface area between coexisting MA types.

The main aim of this special issue would be to provide different approaches to characterize transport properties through MA in several scales. Understanding how MA influence the transport properties of the rock, and how MA evolves because of the temporal evolution of rocks structure (alteration, metamorphism, brittle and ductile deformation). This is the main target of the contributions. Papers focused on different application fields are potentially relevant, such as geothermal processes, geophysics, nuclear waste management, CO2 carbonation, mining waste leaching and agriculture.

Dr. Paul Sardini
Dr. Marja Siitari-Kauppi
Prof. Dr. Vladislav A. Petrov
Prof. Dr. Qinhong Hu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • porosity
  • pore structure
  • mechanical properties
  • microcracks
  • fractures
  • fissures
  • pores
  • petrophysic
  • permeability
  • diffusion
  • geochemistry
  • secondary mineralization
  • mineral aggregate
  • petrography
  • reactive transport
  • crystalline rocks
  • alteration

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 5965 KiB  
Article
Diffusion and Sorption Studies of Cs, Sr and Co in Intact Crystalline Rock
by Xiaodong Li, Juuso Sammaljärvi, Shuo Meng, Longcheng Liu, Marja Siitari-Kauppi and Andrew Martin
Minerals 2022, 12(2), 231; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/min12020231 - 11 Feb 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1446
Abstract
Three cationic tracers, Sr2+, Co2+ and Cs+ were tested with a modified electromigration device by applying 2V, 3V and 4V voltage gradients over an intact Grimsel granodiorite rock sample. An ideal plug-flow model and an advection-dispersion model were applied [...] Read more.
Three cationic tracers, Sr2+, Co2+ and Cs+ were tested with a modified electromigration device by applying 2V, 3V and 4V voltage gradients over an intact Grimsel granodiorite rock sample. An ideal plug-flow model and an advection-dispersion model were applied to analyze the breakthrough curves. Matrix characterization by C-14-PMMA autoradiography and scanning electron microscopy showed that in the centimeter scale of Grimsel granodiorite rock, the interconnected matrix porosity forms a well-connected network for diffusion. Micrometer-scale fissures are transecting biotite and chlorite minerals, indicating sorption of the studied cations. The ideal plug-flow model indicated that the effective diffusion coefficients (De values) for Sr2+, Co2+ and Cs+ tracer ions within the Grimsel granodiorite rock were 3.20 × 10−13 m2/s, 1.23 × 10−13 m2/s and 2.25 × 10−12 m2/s, respectively. De values were also derived from the advection-dispersion model, from which 2.86 × 10−13 m2/s, 1.35 × 10−13 m2/s and 2.26 × 10−12 m2/s were calculated. The diffusion speed for the tracers was in the sequence of Cs+ > Sr2+ > Co2+ that is in the same sequence as their diffusion in diluted water. The distribution coefficients (Kd values) calculated from the models covered the range of two magnitudes (from 10−7 m3/kg to 10−5 m3/kg). The result indicated that the sorption process of the studied elements did not reach equilibrium during the electromigration process, mainly due to the too much acceleration of the migration speed by the voltage gradients applied over the rock sample. Full article
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