Sergi Molins, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Fractures provide preferential flow pathways that govern fluid migration and solute transport in natural systems and engineered applications in the subsurface. Fractures are often subject to alteration due to geochemical reactions, which in turn may increase permeability and weaken asperities. Under confining pressures fractures may collapse and partially close. The combined outcome of these coupled processes may be an enhancement in fluid and solute migration, increasing the potential of leakage to the shallow subsurface or surface environment, or may be a self-sealing behavior, where fluid and solute migration is hampered as fractures close. This session will include contributions from experimental, field and modeling efforts to better understand the role of coupled processes in controlling fracture evolution, and in turn fluid and solute migration and leakage.