Susceptibility of Quartz-Bearing Rock Masses to Rock Falls
G. P. Starikov, S. V. Shatokhin
Institute of Physics of Mining Processes, Donetsk, Russia
Keywords: rockfalls, diffraction pattern, α-quartz, β-quartz, polymorphous modifications, dehydrating activation energy
Abstract
The authors revealed the dependence of the dehydrating activation energy parameters in rocks on the phase ratio of β-quartz to α-quartz. In rocks with the predomination of β-quartz (β-quartz / α-quartz > 1), rockfalls are observed and the ratio of the dehydrating activation energies of crystallization water (chemically bound) and adsorbed water (physically bound) is less than 1. This is reflective of the build-up of free and physically bound water which penetrates defects in rocks due to the phase transition of quartz, and leads to an increase in their dehydrating energy.
|
