DigitalCrust – a 4D data system of material properties for transforming research on crustal fluid flow

Fluid circulation in the Earth's crust plays an essential role in surface, near surface, and deep crustal processes. Flow pathways are driven by hydraulic gradients but controlled by material permeability, which varies over many orders of magnitude and changes over time. Although millions of measurements of crustal properties have been made, including geophysical imaging and borehole tests, this vast amount of data and information has not been integrated into a comprehensive knowledge system. A community data infrastructure is needed to improve data access, enable large-scale synthetic analyses, and support representations of the subsurface in Earth system models. Here, we describe the motivation, vision, challenges,...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation

A digital crust to advance continental‐scale modeling of subsurface fluid flow in climate, crustal process, and Earth system models

Fluid circulation in the Earth’s crust plays an essential role in surface, near surface, and crustal dynamics. Near the surface, soil water and groundwater interact with each other and with rivers, lakes and wetlands, affecting weathering, soil formation, ecosystem evolution and biogeochemical cycles. Further down (1km), fluid flow affects diagenesis, hydrocarbon maturation and migration, ore deposits, faulting and earthquakes, and geothermal resources. The myriad flow pathways are driven by hydraulic gradients but controlled by the permeability of the crust material. To date, a large‐scale dataset of crustal permeability does not exist, inhibiting the understanding of large‐scale processes and the integration of...

Categories: Project; Tags: All Working Groups, Climate Models, Completed, Core Science Systems, Crustal Process Models, All tags... Digital Crust, Earth System Process Models, Models, Water, Water Resources, Fewer tags