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

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.