9529959 Brown Smectite abundances in accretionary wedges influence distribution of water within and expulsion of water from the wedges. Smectite dehydrates to illite when interlayered water is expelled. Previous study by the PI shows promise and a continued time series study is proposed to focus on the coupling between physical and chemical processes. Synthetic sediments will be reacted with fluids at elevated temperature to observe how porosity/permeability evolve and how textural and physical properties change. In future phases of this experimentation, the simple system will be subjected to increasing degrees of complexity and eventually to natural samples.
