The science

Fault plane kinamatics

Fault planes are rough at varied scales. Understanding the roughness and their distribution over the planes is crucial for rupture propagation during earthquake events. We primarily investigate the origin of this roughness in the form of slickenlines.

The heterogeneity in the distribution patterns of such roughness contributes to differential stress accumulation during pre-rupture conditions. Studying their spatial distribution over the fault plane is another direction in seismic research.

Magma emplacement

Dikes and sills are two types of tabular igneous intrusive bodies that are the major pathways of subsurface magma propagation. The geometry of these bodies varies depending on several parameters, e.g., the viscosity of the propagating magma, volumetric flux, and temperature. Our main focus is revolving around the identification of the emplacement mechanism of these dikes and sills correlated from their geometric patterns.

Desiccation cracks

Mud cracks are a common signature of desiccation in muddy layers under atmospheric conditions. Geologists often use them to reconstruct paleoenvironments from rock records, considering that the crack pattern is a reliable indicator of specific environmental conditions. Despite significant progress in the study of external factors, such as ambient temperature, humidity, sun exposure time, and new fluid incorporation guiding the desiccation process, the conditions required for their specific pattern formation are not comprehensively understood. Our research accounts for a set of physical factors: mud layer thickness, compositional variations, and drastic thermal change to demonstrate their effects on the mud crack patterns from controlled laboratory experiments.

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Article

Biswas, U., Mitra, A. K., & Mandal, N. (2023). Wall Fracturing versus Mechanical Instability as Competing Intrusion Mechanisms of Dikes: Insights from Laboratory Experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, e2023JB026921. [Click here to read]

Biswas, U., Mukhopadhyay, M., & Mandal, N. (2023). Fractal analysis of anisotropic shear-fracture roughness from rocks and analogue laboratory models: A new approach for heterogeneous-slip characterization. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 169, 105432. [Click here to read]

Mukhopadhyay, M., Biswas, U., Mandal, N., & Misra, S. (2019). On the development of shear surface roughness. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124(2), 1273-1293. [Click here to read]

Archived article

Biswas, U., Mukhopadhyay, M., & Mandal, N. (2023). Slip-stuck kinematics of fault surfaces in laboratory experiments: implications for heterogeneous slip distributions during earthquake events. [Click here to read]

Conference paper

Biswas, U., Mitra, A. K., & Mandal, N. (2024). Gel wax and Ultrasound Transmission Gel as upper and lower crustal rheology analogue (No. EGU24-744). Copernicus Meetings.[Click here to read the abstract]

Biswas, U., Mukhopadhyay, M., & Mandal, N. Slip versus Stuck zones on a Fault Surface Determines the Kinematic Behavior of Pre-existing Ruptures: Implications for Heterogeneous Slip Distributions during Earthquake Events. In AGU Fall Meeting 2023.

Biswas, U., Mitra, A. K., & Mandal, N. Geometrical Patterns of Dikes as an Indicator of Their Emplacement Mechanisms: Insights from a Laboratory Experiment. In AGU Fall Meeting 2023.

Biswas, U., Mitra, A. K., & Mandal, N. (2023). Factors Controlling the Mud Crack Patterns: Insights from Analogue Experiments. In the 20th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS 2023). [Click here to read]

Biswas, U., Mitra, A. K., & Mandal, N. (2023). Emplacement mechanisms of pegmatites in the Chotonagpur Granite Gneiss Complex, Eastern India: insights from laboratory experiments. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts. [Click here to read]

Biswas, U., Mukhopadhyay, M., & Mandal, N. (2022, December). Heterogeneous Roughness Properties of Fault Surfaces: New Insights from Laboratory Experiments. In Fall Meeting 2022. AGU. [Click here to read]

Biswas, U., Mukhopadhyay, M., & Mandal, N. (2022, October). Factors controlling slickenlines morphology. In 7th National Conference on Rock Deformation and Structures (RDS VII) Abstracts (p. 21).

Mukhopadhyay, M., Biswas, U., Mandal, N., & Misra, S. (2021, October). Quantifying slip-surface roughness: a novel approach. In 6th National Conference on Rock Deformation and Structures (RDS VI) Abstracts (p. 16).

Mukhopadhyay, M., Biswas, U., Mandal, N., & Misra, S. (2020, May). Factors controlling shear rupture roughness: An insight from field and laboratory experiments. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (p. 989).

Biswas, U., & Mandal, N. (2018, October). A new approach to the analysis of surface topology. In 5th National Conference on Rock Deformation and Structures (RDS V) Abstracts (p. 71-72).

Conference sessions convenor

Biswas, U., Padilla, A. M. R., Mandal, N., & Sethanant, I. (2023, December). Fracture Roughness Analysis and Influence of Fault Structural Maturity on Earthquake Behavior I & II Oral & Poster. In Fall Meeting AGU 2023.

France, L., Biswas, U., Melekhova, E., Urbani, S, Bouilhol, P., Mandal, N., Maestrelli, D. (2024, April). Volcanic & Igneous Plumbing System processes and kinetics: from magma to mush to pluton. In EGU General Assembly 2024.

PhD Thesis

Biswas, U. (2024, June). Failure characteristics and dike emplacement mechanisms in Earth’s crust: field and experimental studies. Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, India. doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.13124.85129. [Click here to read]

Biswas et al., 2023a

Biswas et al., 2022 (AGU Fall Meeting 2022)