Multiscale reactive transport is the central phenomenon governing geologic processes in Earth's interior. Tectonic motions drive subducting plates deep into the mantle, and large-scale convection draws the mantle up beneath mid-ocean ridges and within mantle plumes. The melts and fluids that are produced by these large-scale flows in turn buoyantly ascend and react within the mantle's porous network. The scale, dynamic nature and inaccessibility of Earth's interior mean that we rely on computational models to study and understand these processes. However, holistically describing both the dynamics of how rocks and fluids flow, and the chemical aspects of how they evolve and react has remained a long-standing theoretical and computational challenge. In this talk I will present a new computationally tractable framework for integrating multiphase thermodynamics and geodynamics that is based on the concepts of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The theory is supported by a newly developed software infrastructure, as part of the ENKI project, that allows us to generate custom thermodynamic and kinetics libraries. Here, I will apply the framework to the formation of porous melt channels beneath mid-ocean ridges which are critical for preserving the disequilibrium composition of MORB. 

Zoom link: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/97546397248