GSA Penrose Conference: PRF2022 Progressive Failure of Brittle Rocks; Western North Carolina; June 2022

2022年美国地质学会关于渐进性岩石破裂的彭罗斯会议(PRF2022)将汇集大约75名国际科学家和工程师，以促进我们对建造和自然环境中岩石破裂的理解的阶段性改变。要充分了解岩石破裂，就要了解对社会健康和安全至关重要的地球要素，包括：与崩塌和山体滑坡有关的自然灾害；与岩石有关的基础设施退化；岩石风化和侵蚀；甚至沉积颗粒的大小和分布以及地球最上层地壳的内部结构--结构--这对地球的土壤和水资源和自然资源都有贡献。然而，传统上，研究天然岩石裂缝的地球科学家在很大程度上忽视了岩石物理和工程研究带来的知识和影响，反之亦然。因此，PRF2022的一个关键目标是打开大门，通过在岩土工程、地表过程、自然灾害和石材遗产问题的背景下研究渐进性岩石破坏来获得新的见解。这一目标将通过最大限度地扩大会议的学科多样性和参与者多样性来实现。为了确保会议成果的长寿和可获得性，PRF2022还将为早期职业和学生与会者提供指导计划，并与公众和科学家之间交流会议想法。人们对1)裂隙在关键区过程、地貌演变和岩土问题中所起的中心作用的认识正在迅速增长；2)断裂力学的一个“新”领域，既适用于工程过程，也适用于自然表面过程，但在这些背景下一直没有得到充分的研究--即渐进岩石破坏(又名：渐进性岩石破坏)。亚临界裂化、环境裂化和微裂化)。特别是，在许多表面处理和工程应用中，渐进岩石破裂在天然岩石破裂中的作用在很大程度上没有被认识到或被误解，在这些应用中，它可能起主导作用。为了更好地利用最近迅速发展的跨学科岩石破裂概念及其与侵蚀、灾害、保存、气候和化学风化的关系，本次彭罗斯会议将于2022年6月在美国北卡罗来纳州西部举行。PRF2022将：提供一个确定互补数据/观测和建模方法的平台；揭示关键的现有和需要的数据集；刺激新的多学科合作以及科学和商业资助机会；并为未来在学术和应用地球科学问题上对PRF进行评估建立一个框架。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The 2022 Penrose Conference of the Geological Society of America on progressive rock failure (PRF2022) will bring together approximately 75 international scientists and engineers to facilitate a step-change in our understanding of rock fracture in both built and natural environments. To fully understand rock fracture is to understand elements of Earth that are critical for societal health and safety including: natural hazards related to rockfalls and landslides; degradation of rock-related infrastructure; rock weathering and erosion; and even the size and distribution of sedimentary particles and the internal structure – architecture - of Earth’s uppermost crust, which contribute to Earth’s soils and hold its water and natural resources. Yet, traditionally geoscientists studying natural rock fracture have largely overlooked the knowledge and implications to be derived from rock physics and engineering research, and vice versa. Therefore, a key goal of PRF2022 is to open doors to new insights that may be gained by studying progressive rock failure in the context of geotechnical engineering, surface processes, natural hazards and stone heritage problems. This goal will be achieved by maximizing both disciplinary diversity and participant diversity of the conference. To ensure longevity and accessibility of conference’s outcomes, PRF2022 will also provide a mentoring scheme for early career and student attendees and communicate the conference ideas with the public and among scientists themselves. There is a burgeoning recognition of 1) the central role that fractures play in Critical Zone processes, landscape evolution, and geotechnical problems; and 2) a ‘new’ realm of fracture mechanics that applies to both engineered and natural surface processes but has been understudied in those contexts - namely progressive rock failure (a.k.a. subcritical cracking, environmental cracking and microcracking). In particular, the role of progressive rock failure in natural rock fracture has been largely unrecognized or misunderstood across a wide array of both surface process and engineering applications, where it likely plays a dominant role. To best leverage recent, rapidly evolving cross-discipline conceptualizations of rock fracture and its relationship to erosion, hazards, preservation, climate, and chemical weathering, this Penrose Conference will be held in Western North Carolina, USA (June 2022). PRF2022 will: provide a platform to identify complementary data/observations and modelling approaches; reveal key existing and needed datasets; stimulate new multidisciplinary collaborations and scientific and commercial funding opportunities; and build a framework for future evaluation of PRF within both academic and applied Earth sciences questions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.