Nano-scale fracture phenomena and TeraHertz pressure waves as the fundamental reasons for geochemical evolution

Abstract

TeraHertz vibrations and pressure waves are produced at the nano-scale in solids and fluids by fracture and cavitation, respectively. They present a frequency that is close to the resonance frequency of the atomic lattices and an energy that is close to that of thermal neutrons. Original experiments performed on non-radioactive rocks under mechanical compression loading have shown repeatable neutron emissions in correspondence to microand macro-fracture. After these experiments, a considerable reduction in the iron content of the crushed rocks appears to be consistently counterbalanced by an increase in Al, Si, and Mg contents. At the same time, significant measurements of neutron emissions are observed at the Earth’s Crust scale before and during seismic activity. In addition, several data coming from geochemistry and geomechanics have recently emphasized how tectonic activity should have been strictly connected to the most important changes in the Earth’s Crust chemical composition over the last 4.5 Billion years. On these bases, the hypothesis of a new kind of low energy nuclear reactions finds confirmation and could be considered as a valid explanation for the geologic evolution of the Earth’s Crust, Ocean, and Atmosphere. The same phenomenon appears to have occurred also in the chemical evolution of other planets of the Solar System like Mars, and of the Sun itself.