Material Constitution

of Rocks

Homogeneity and continuity of

materials
A material is homogeneous if the
properties of one piece are the same as
the properties of any other piece

A material that does not fit this definition

is said to be inhomogeneous
A material is continuous if every
subvolume within it is occupied by the
material and if its properties vary smoothly
from one point to another
A material that does not have these
characteristics, in which properties such as
density and strength vary abruptly across

The concepts of perfect homogeneity and perfect

continuity are nevertheless useful because they
define the properties of the idealized materials
dealt with in much of the mathematical theory of
mechanical behavior.
These concepts also permit us to classify material
as approximately homo- geneous or approximately
continuous if we specify permissible departures
from the ideal.
This is illustrated for homogeneity in Figure 1.1.
Notice that to call a region of real material
homogeneous in this looser, or "statistical," sense,
we have to specify a scale on which the region is
sampled and also the particular properties with
respect to which we are examining it

Granitic dike rock showing biotite grains and joints.

The rock is approximately homogeneous on a scale of
1 cm with respect to biotite content (i.e., 1 cm 3
anywhere in the specimen contains approximately the
same number of biotite grains). The rock is not
homogeneous on this scale with respect to joint
frequency.

Material constituents and

structure of rocks

Figure 1.2 shows rock bodies on various scales.

In each field of view there are approximately
homogeneous regions of more than one kind.
These types of homogeneous regions are the
material constituents of rock bodies.
In Figure 1.2e, for example, the material
constituents are quartz grains, mica films, and
kinked biotites; in Figure 1.2c they are folded
sediments and igneous rock. Whatever scale we
look on, we tend to see regions occupied by
different material constituents.
Such regions are separated by bound- aries, and it
is these boundaries-in particular their geometrical
configuration in space-that define the structure of
a rock body.

Figure 1.2 Rock bodies on various scales, showing material constituents and
structure. (a) The whole earth, made up of core, mantle, and crust. (b) A
continental margin, showing crust and mantle. (c) Part of a mountain belt,
showing folded sediments and igneous rock. (d) A fold hinge, show- ing sandstone
and slate. (e) Part of a thin section, showing quartz grains, mica films, and kinked
biotite. (f) An intra- crystalline region, showing normal biotite and biotite with
abundant cleavage cracks, with a kink boundary between them. (g) A region
within the macroscopic kink boundary of (f), showing, schematically, regions of
normal crystal structure separated by a subgrain boundary region o f very
abnormal structure. In each picture the material constitu- ents are the labeled
entities and the structure is the con- figuration of the boundaries between them.)

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Continuum mechanics and discontinuous

rocks (1)
The branch of mechanics that treats
materials as if they were continuous
is called continuum mechanics.
We ask: Why study this subject in
geology if rocks are full of grain
boundaries, bedding planes, and
other structures across which there
is an abrupt and essentially
discontinuous change in material
properties?
There are two main parts to the

Continuum mechanics and discontinuous

rocks (2)
1. Experience shows that continuum

mechanics often makes approximately

correct predictions, even when applied to
discontinuous materials.
2. The second reason for learning continuum

mechanics is that it is much simpler

mathematically than the theory of
discontinue. This latter theory is based on
continuum concepts anyway, so for
reasons of simplicity and priority, students
need to learn continuum concepts first.

Continuum mechanics and discontinuous

rocks (3)
Because we restrict attention in most of the rest of this
course to the continuum view of rocks, we should
emphasize before leaving them that the discontinuities
in rocks are all important in controlling actual material
behavior.
These are the features that have to be studied ultimately
to learn the origin of deformational features in rocks.
Faults are initiated at cracks, and mineral grains flow
because tiny regions of abnormal structure become
activated and start migrating through the crystals.
In each case, deformation occurs at and propagates
through regions that are not typical of the main mass of
the material. Deformational processes of most types are
thus highly localized phenomena.

Mechanical State
The instantaneous condition of a rock
system is referred to here as the
mechanical state of the system.
We distinguish carefully between
quantities describing the instantaneous
state and other quantities comparing two
or more states.
The mechanical state at an instant is
charac- terized by features like the position
of each part of the system, the velocity
with which each part is changing position,
and the forces acting on and between

Mechanical State
To describe any of these features quantitatively, we
need a reference frame and a coordinate system.
In Figure 2.1 the reference frame is fixed to the
footwall block of a microfault in sandstone, and two
coordinate systems are shown.
Any quartz grain has different coordinates in the two
systems, but these are always related by the
equations

because the two coordinate systems are fixed in this

manner relative to one another in the same
reference frame. Equations 2.1 are examples of
coordinate transformation formulae.

Reference frames are usually defined (as above)

by arbitrarily designating some convenient part of
a system as motionless.
In Figure 2.1 the footwall block of the fault is
taken as motionless, and this means in effect that
points in space that maintain fixed distances from
particles of the footwall block are assigned fixed
coordinates.
Choice of a reference frame therefore has to do
with assigning coordinates to points in space.
The particular numbers assigned each point
depend on the choice of coordinate system.
Notice the distinction made above between
particles (which are very small bits of matter) and
points (which are locations in space).

Position
The positions of parts of a rock system can be specified by
giving the coordinates of the point occupied by each particle.
Returning to Figure 2.1, and taking individual quartz grains
as "particles," we can describe the positions by listing the
coordinates of each quartz grain.
A second way to describe positions is to specify a position
vector for each quartz grain.
A position vector is represented by an arrow drawn with its
tail at the origin of the coordinate system and its tip at the
particle represented (e.g., vectors P and Q in Figure 2.1).
The positions of all particles of a rock body are thus
represented by an infinite number of position vectors.
Notice that the components of a position vector, parallel to
the coordinate directions, are exactly equal in magnitude to
the coordinates of the particle.

Configuration
Once the positions of all particles are
specified,
we automatically also know the
configuration of
the system-that is, the length and relative
orientations of lines connecting all possible
pairs of particles.
For each pair of particles the vector
difference be- tween their position vectors
is a third vector (Figure 2.2) that has
magnitude equal to the length of the
connecting line between the particles and
direction parallel to the connecting line.

Velocities
The instantaneous velocities in a system can be
pictured as an array of small arrows, one for
each particle, pointing in the instantaneous
direction of particle movement and having
lengths proportional to the speed of the particle.
Each arrow represents a vector quantity (having
magnitude and direction) which is the velocity of
each particle.
The array of arrows represents the velocity field.
The velocity field for Figure 2.1 is shown in
Figure 2.3. Notice that this is the velocity field for

Forces (1)
At each point on the boundary of a quartz grain A
there will be some force exerted, either by a
neighboring grain B or by neighboring pore fluid
Figure 2.4a). An equal and opposite force will be
exerted on B, or pore fluid, by A.
The magnitude of these forces will be very small
since the point in question is very small, and for
this reason it is difficult to think about forces at
points in rocks or other materials.
If, however, we think instead about the ratio of
force to area across bits of the bound- aries of the
quartz grains, this ratio will generally have a finite
value even for very small areas.

Forces (2)
This useful ratio is called stress, and at any given
instant there will be a definite stress across all
parts of all the quartz grain boundaries.
The stress across each small area is a vector
quantity, and, as for velocity, we can picture the
distribution of grain boundary stresses by an array
of stress vectors, part of which is drawn in Figure
2.4b.
Notice that we cannot draw a stress vector for a
whole quartz grain, or for any other particle,
because stress vectors by definition refer to
particular planes and not to three-dimensional
regions, however small.

Mechanical
Homogeneity
In Chapter 1 we explained what is meant by a homogeneous
material. We can use similar definitions to classify the mechanical
condition of a rock system as homogeneous or inhomogeneous.
A velocity field is homogeneous if all the velocity vectors have the
same magnitude and orientation. A stress field is homogeneous if
the stress vector associated with each orientation of plane has the
same magnitude and orientation, regardless of the position of the
plane in the body.
Thus, for example, all vertical, North-South planes in a rock body
must be subject to the same stress vector if the body is
homogeneously stressed.
If a vertical, North-South plane at one point in a body is associated with a different stress vector from a vertical, North-South
plane at some other point, the body is inhomogeneously stressed.

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