The formation and preservation of cratons -the oldest parts of the continents comprising over 60% of the continental landmass -remains an enduring problem. Keyto craton development is how and when the thick strong mantle roots that underlie these regions formed and evolved. Peridotite melting residues forming cratonic lithospheric roots mostly originated via relatively low-pressure melting and were subsequently transported to greater depth by thickening produced by lateral accretion and compression. The longest-lived cratons assembled during Mesoarchean and Paleoproterozoic times, creating the 150 to 250 km thick, stable mantle roots that are critical to preserving Earth's early continents and central to defining the cratons although we extend the definition of cratons to include extensive regions of long-stable Mesoproterzoic crust also underpinned by thick lithospheric roots. The production of widespread thick and strong lithosphere via the process of orogenic thickening, possibly in several cycles, was fundamental to the eventual emergence of extensive continental landmasses -the cratons.

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Summary Two-phase flow equations that couple solid deformation and fluid migration have opened new research trends in geodynamical simulations and modelling of subsurface engineering. Physical nonlinearity of fluid-rock systems and strong coupling between flow and deformation in such equations lead to interesting predictions such as spontaneous formation of focused fluid flow in ductile/plastic rocks. However, numerical implementation of two-phase flow equations and their application to realistic geological environments with complex geometries and multiple stratigraphic layers is challenging. This study documents an efficient pseudo-transient solver for two-phase flow equations and describes the numerical theory and physical rationale. We provide a simple explanation for all steps involved in the development of a pseudo-transient numerical scheme for various types of equations. Two different constitutive models are used in our formulations: a bilinear viscous model with decompaction weakening and a viscoplastic model that allows decompaction weakening at positive effective pressures. The resulting numerical models are used to study fluid leakage from high porosity reservoirs into less porous overlying rocks. The interplay between time-dependent rock deformation and the buoyancy of ascending fluids leads to the formation of localized channels. The role of material parameters, reservoir topology, geological heterogeneity and porosity is investigated. Our results show that material parameters control the propagation speed of channels while the geometry of the reservoir controls their locations. Geological layers present in the overburden do not stop the propagation of the localized channels but rather modify their width, permeability, and growth speed.

Gas chimneys, fluid-escape pipes, and diffused gas clouds are common geohazards above or below most petroleum reservoirs and in some CO2 storage sites. However, the processes driving the formation of such structures are poorly understood, as are the time scales associated with their growth or their role as long-term preferential fluid-migration pathways in sedimentary basins. We present results from a multidisciplinary study integrating advanced seismic processing techniques with high-resolution simulations of geological processes. Our analyses indicate that time-dependent rock (de)compaction yields ascending solitary porosity waves forming high-porosity and high-permeability vertical chimneys that will reach the surface. The size and location of chimneys depend on the reservoir topology and compaction length. Our simulation results suggest that chimneys in the studied area could have been formed and then lost their connection to the reservoir on a time scale of a few months.

<p>Two-phase flow equations that couple solid deformation and fluid migration have opened new research trends in geodynamical simulations and modelling of subsurface engineering operations. The physical nonlinearity of fluid-rock systems and strong coupling between flow and deformation in such equations lead to interesting predictions such as the spontaneous formation of focused fluid flow in ductile/plastic rocks. However, numerical implementation of two-phase flow equations and their application to realistic geological environments with complex geometries and multiple stratigraphic layers is challenging. Here, we present an efficient pseudo-transient solver for two-phase flow equations. We first study the focused fluid flow under the viscous regime without considering the elasticity. The roles of material parameters, reservoir topology, geological heterogeneity, and porosity are investigated. We show that focused fluid channels are the natural outcome of the flow instability of the two-phase system with a low ratio (< 0.1) between shear viscosity and bulk viscosity. We also confirm the previous studies that  decompaction weakening is necessary to elongate the porosity profile. The permeability exponents play the dominant role in the speed of wave propagation. The numerical models study fluid leakage from high porosity reservoirs into less porous overlying rocks. Geological layers present in the overburden do not stop the propagation of the localized channels but rather modify their width, permeability, and growth speed. We further validate our conclusions by modelling the full two-phase system with viscoelastic rheology and elastic solid and fluid compressibility (Yarushina et al., 2015). The Deborah number (De), solid (<em>K<sub>s</sub></em>), and fluid (<em>K<sub>f</sub></em>) bulk moduli are thus introduced into the governing equations. We found that the elasticity makes a difference when the Deborah number approaches one by speeding up the channel propagation. At the same time, its effect is rather limited when Deborah's number is small (e.g., 0.1). The effects of compressibility of the solid and fluid, on the other hand, are not found significant within the reasonable ranges of the bulk moduli.</p><p> </p>

<p>Understanding fluid flow patterns in the shallow and deep earth is one of the major challenges of modern earth sciences. Fluid flow may be slow and pervasive, or fast and focused. In the deep earth, focused fluid flow may result in, for example, dikes, veins, volcanic diatremes and gas venting systems. In the shallow Earth, focused fluid flow can be found in the form of fluid escape pipes and gas conducting chimneys, mud volcanoes, sand injectites, pockmarks, hydrothermal vent complexes, etc.</p><p>Focused fluid flow has been reproduced in visco-plastic models of flow through porous materials. However, the mechanisms that cause fluid flow to focus along such relatively narrow channels, with transiently elevated permeability, have not been investigated thoroughly in experiments. We have carried out experiments in a transparent Hele-Shaw cell. In our experiments, a hydrous fluid is injected into an aggregate of viscous grains, and the mechanisms by which this injected fluid flows are recorded using a digital camera. Our experiments demonstrate a dependence of fluid flow mechanisms on the injection rate. At low injection rate, we observe the formation of a slowly-rising diapir. As this diapir slowly rises through the porous medium, it is fed by transient, focused fluid flow following the path of the rising diapir. Once the diapir escapes through the surface of our aggregate, continued fluid flow through the porous aggregate is focused and transient. At high injection rate, instead of a diapir fed by focused fluid flow, an open channel forms as a result of local fluidization of the granular material.</p><p>Our experimental observations are interpreted through visco-plastic models simulating the experimental conditions. These numerical models can reproduce the diapirs observed in our experiments at low flow rate by assuming flow through a layered porous aggregate, with a layer with relatively high bulk viscosity overlying a layer with relatively low bulk viscosity. For low injection rates, such a model reproduces focused fluid flow in the low-viscosity layer, that feeds into a slowly rising diapir in the high-viscosity layer. This model observation thus suggests that the passage of the rising diapir in our experiments leaves a trail, where the aggregate bulk viscosity is lowered and along which ongoing fluid flow can focus transiently.</p>

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