The intrusion of fluid mechanics into geology

Abstract

During the last few years, a number of fluid dynamicists, often in collaboration with geologists, have been investigating problems suggested by geology and creating the new field of geological fluid mechanics. The research has uncovered many new fluid-mechanical phenomena and the studies’ have ranged widely over theoretical contributions, laboratory experiments and confirmatory field observations. This paper presents an overview of part of the field, with a strong emphasis on the novel fluid-mechanical concepts. The presentation includes discussion of some of the effects of cooling and crystallization and the resulting convective motions, the flow of gravity currents at both high and low Reynolds number, and the erosion of solid retaining walls by hot, turbulent flows.