Abstract:
Those attending G.F.D. 1984 were introduced to the novel topic of
Geological Fluid Mechanics by our Principal Lecturer, Herbert Huppert. He
presented his studies both as a discipline with recent fascinating successes,
and as a challenge to his listeners to further isolate mathematically
tractable examples of these multi-component flows. Geological Fluid Mechanics
has been the responsible process for the formation and modification of most of
the geological objects studied today. The dynamics of fluid mixtures in magma
chambers, the changing fluid boundary conditions and composition during
selective crystallization of parts of the melt, and the separation of fluid
fractions of different density and viscosity all represent areas in which
quantitative theories are currently being tested. However, equally many
areas, including convection mechanisms in the Earth's core and quantitative
predictions for upper mantle motion, resist simplistic modeling.
