Cracks are everywhere, and they often mean trouble. In the foundation of your house, in your windshield, in the tectonic plates below your feet. But, surprisingly, scientists don’t actually understand them as well as they would like.

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Purdue physics professor Laura Pyrak-Nolte and her lab team works with Purdue’s Rock Physics Research Group to better understand how and where fractures form.

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“The key idea is that if we understand how corrugations are produced, just by looking at a rock sample we can remotely predict fracture geometry and preferential flow paths for fluids,” Pyrak-Nolte said. It works the other way, too. By looking at the way a rock fractures, researchers can infer something about its mineral orientation.

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