DTM’s Christian Klimczak presented a talk entitled “Fracturing behavior of geological materials during volumetric, brittle deformation.”

A MESSENGER Fellow with a strong background in structural geology and material science from the Mackay School of Earth Sciences, Klimczak explained the different modes of fracturing. He then applied fracture analysis to a broad range of examples from material, Earth, and planetary sciences.

Using measurements from his fieldwork in Utah, Klimczak described the basics of rock and soil fracturing. He gave data-relevant examples of fracture geometry and scaling, and he clarified how fracturing is influenced by different material properties.

While at DTM, Christian will be applying his knowledge of fractures and faults specifically to images and other data collected by the MESSENGER spacecraft. On the basis of his fieldwork on Earth, Klimczak will investigate the mechanics of faults and faulting processes on Mercury.

According to Klimczak, “the data obtained from MESSENGER allow detailed analysis on fault geometry and fault propagation, which ultimately will yield new insights in the tectonic evolution of Mercury and the mechanical behavior of the rocks there.”