Moisture dynamics controls rock elasticity from weakening to stiffening
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Water is ubiquitous in crustal rocks and has been independently shown to increase and decrease rock elasticity via adsorption-induced weakening and saturation-related stiffening. Yet, the interplay of how weakening and stiffening effects concurrently control the rock elasticity remains unclear. Here, we examine the acousto-mechanical behavior of a free-standing sandstone subjected to gradual water infiltration with a downward-moving wetting front over 7 days. Using time-lapse ultrasonic and digital imaging techniques, we observe elastic weakening ahead of the wetting front, which is explained by an analytical model linking P-wave velocity decrease, adsorption-induced expansion and surface energy decrease established at the grain scale. As the wetting front moves through the probed region, the weakening effect diminishes, and P-wave velocity begins to increase, consistent with findings in granite. This shift is attributed to saturation-related stiffening, supported by an analytical model of partial water saturation. A numerical model simulating the profile of water saturation and vapor further validates these observations. Our research sheds light on a key question in rock deformation: how weakening and stiffening effects jointly control rock deformation during progressive wetting.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".