The PI will establish experimentally in both crystalline and clastic rocks quantitative relations between in situ stress magnitudes and breakout characteristics (such as location, span, depth, persistence) under realistic simulation of field conditions. He will also study the mechanism of breakout formation and growth in common crystalline rock such as granite and basalt, and compare it to the failure process observed in clastic sedimentary rock, and produce analytical model(s) of the breakout-stress relations, calibrated by experimental results.
