FLUID-FLOW IN METAMORPHIC ENVIRONMENTS

The study of fluid flow in metamorphic environments progressed over the last quadrennium mainly from a focus on the tenets of continuum mechanics, in which rock properties such as porosity and tortuosity that control flow are assumed to be homogeneous over a specified finite volume. Advances have been afforded by these principles not only from their direct application, but also from tests of their veracity. Assumptions inherent in the continuum approach are based on the scale of observation and, in conjunction with the advent of new analytical technologies, have given new impetus for examining mechanisms of material transfer between fluids and metamorphic rocks at smaller and smaller scales. Thus, even as continuum mechanics has laudably come to be widely utilized in the study of metamorphic fluid flow, the “empirical adequacy” [Oreskes et al., 1994] of the methodology is being assessed through access to previously unattainable scales of observation. Copyright 1995 by the American Geophysical Union.