Viewing Earth’s surface as a soft matter landscape Douglas J. Jerolmack1,2 and Karen E. Daniels3 1Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania. Phone: 215-746-2823. Fax: 215-898-0964.
[email protected] 2Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania 3Department of Physics, North Carolina State University. Phone: 919-513-7921.
[email protected] March 12, 2019 Abstract: The Earth’s surface is composed of a staggering results from the cumulative effects of innumerable flow events diversity of particulate-fluid mixtures: dry to wet, dilute to [12]. dense, colloidal to granular, and attractive to repulsive parti- Remarkably, the Earth is “soft” on geological timescales if cles. This material variety is matched by the range of rele- we take the meaning of that term in the spirit of de Gennes vant stresses and strain rates, from laminar to turbulent flows, [13]: our ground is composed of materials that are responsive and steady to intermittent forcing, leading to anything from in their collective effects. However, only the patient observer rapid and catastrophic landslides to the slow relaxation of soil will notice the relaxation of mountains as rocks flow at speeds and rocks over geologic timescales. Geophysical flows sculpt of 0.1 nm/s (10−2 m/yr). Slightly faster are the rates at which landscapes, but also threaten human lives and infrastructure. soil and ice creep downhill, sometimes exceeding 100 nm/s From a physics point of view, virtually all Earth and planetary (10 m/yr). Yet, true to the typical sensitivity of soft materials, landscapes are composed of soft matter, in the sense they are these processes can intermittently become unstable and land- both deformable and sensitive to collective effects.