Dynamic System Roughening from Mineral to Tectonic Plate Scale: Similarities Between Stylolites and Mid-Ocean Ridges
Hafermaas D, Köhler S, Köhn D, Toussaint R (2025)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2025
Journal
Book Volume: 15
Article Number: 743
Journal Issue: 7
DOI: 10.3390/min15070743
Abstract
Stylolites are a common mineral dissolution feature in rocks that develop during compression and form distinct tooth structures. On a tectonic plate scale, mid-ocean ridges (MORs) and transform faults are a significant feature of the Earth’s surface that develop due to accretion of new material in an extensional regime. We present a comparison between the two features and argue that transform faults in MOR are similar to the sides of stylolite teeth, with both features representing kinematic faults (KFs). First, we present a numerical model of both stylolite and MOR growth and show that in both cases, KFs nucleate and grow spontaneously. In addition, we use a well-established technique (Family–Vicsek scaling) of describing fractal self-affine interfaces, which has been used for stylolites, to characterize the pattern of MOR systems in both simulations and natural examples. Our results show that stylolites and MOR have self-affine scaling characteristics with similar scaling regimes. They both show a larger roughness exponent at the small scale, a smaller exponent at the intermediate scale, followed by a flattening of the system at the largest scale. For stylolites, the physical forces behind the scaling are the surface energy at the small mineral scale, the elastic energy at the intermediate scale, followed by the system reaching the correlation length where growth stops. For MORs, the physical forces behind the scaling are not yet clear; however, the self-affine scaling shows that transform faults at MORs do not have a preferred spacing, but that the spacing is fractal. Our study offers a new perspective on the study of natural roughening phenomena on various scales, from minerals to tectonic plates, and a new view on the development of MORs.
Authors with CRIS profile
Daniel Hafermaas
Professur für Tektonik
Saskia Köhler
Professur für Tektonik
Daniel Köhn
Professur für Tektonik
Involved external institutions
France (FR)How to cite
APA:
Hafermaas, D., Köhler, S., Köhn, D., & Toussaint, R. (2025). Dynamic System Roughening from Mineral to Tectonic Plate Scale: Similarities Between Stylolites and Mid-Ocean Ridges. Minerals, 15(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/min15070743
MLA:
Hafermaas, Daniel, et al. "Dynamic System Roughening from Mineral to Tectonic Plate Scale: Similarities Between Stylolites and Mid-Ocean Ridges." Minerals 15.7 (2025).
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