Elastic wave velocity and electrical conductivity in a brine-saturated rock and microstructure of pores

Abstract

Elastic wave velocity and electrical conductivity in a brine-saturated granitic rock were measured under confining pressures of up to 150 MPa and microstructure of pores was examined with SEM on ion-milled surfaces to understand the pores that govern electrical conduction at high pressures. The closure of cracks under pressure causes the increase in velocity and decrease in conductivity. Conductivity decreases steeply below 10 MPa and then gradually at higher pressures. Though cracks are mostly closed at the confining pressure of 150 MPa, brine must be still interconnected to show observed conductivity. SEM observation shows that some cracks have remarkable variation in aperture. The aperture varies from ~ 100 nm to ~ 3 μm along a crack. FIB–SEM observation suggests that wide aperture parts are interconnected in a crack. Both wide and narrow aperture parts work parallel as conduction paths at low pressures. At high pressures, narrow aperture parts are closed but wide aperture parts are still open to maintain conduction paths. The closure of narrow aperture parts leads to a steep decrease in conductivity, since narrow aperture parts dominate cracks. There should be cracks in various sizes in the crust: from grain boundaries to large faults. A crack must have a variation in aperture, and wide aperture parts must govern the conduction paths at depths. A simple tube model was employed to estimate the fluid volume fraction. The fluid volume fraction of 10−4–10−3 is estimated for the conductivity of 10−2 S/m. Conduction paths composed of wide aperture parts are consistent with observed moderate fluctuations (< 10%) in seismic velocity in the crust.[Figure not available: see fulltext.].