The roughness of stylolites: Implications of 3D high resolution topography measurements

Abstract

Stylolites are natural pressure-dissolution surfaces in sedimentary rocks. We present 3D high resolution measurements at laboratory scales of their complex roughness. The topography is shown to be described by a self-affine scaling invariance. At large scales, the Hurst exponent is ${\zeta }_1\approx 0.5$ and very different from that at small scales where ${\zeta }_2\approx 1.2$. A cross-over length scale at around ${Ł}_c=1$~mm is well characterized. Measurements are consistent with a Langevin equation that describes the growth of a stylolitic interface as a competition between stabilizing long range elastic interactions at large scales or local surface tension effects at small scales and a destabilizing quenched material disorder.

4 pages, 4 figures

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