Larose Lab

Research focus

ERC Advanced Grant · 2023

Revealing the mechanics of sub-critical rock cracking of mountains cliffs from environmental forcings by imaging stress cycles from dense acoustic arrays

The general idea that a rock mass cracks when the external stress-loading exceeds the rock strength, leading to catastrophic failure (critical cracking), is challenged when considering outcrop erosion. Many observations in the field and the laboratory evidence slow, incremental crack developments well below the yield stress of the material, for which repetitive stress load and fatigue induce progressive failure, also called sub-critical cracking. It is largely accepted that the weather (temperature changes, rain, frost) is a major source of stress cycles and slow cumulative damage, but the literature shows too limited quantitative field observations to confirm the mechanics behind rock…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.