A chemical reaction that constantly 'clogs' itself can actually spread through rock much more efficiently than one that flows freely.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
Retreat to advance: self-blocking enables efficient mineral replacement
arXiv · 2603.27336
The Takeaway
When minerals replace each other in rocks, the flow usually takes the path of least resistance and leaves most of the rock untouched. However, this study shows that if the reaction creates 'blockages,' it forces the chemicals to find new paths, eventually creating a perfect mosaic that replaces the entire stone.
From the abstract
Mineral replacement reactions under advective flow often suffer from severe spatial inefficiency: dissolution causes the flow to self-focus into a few dominant wormholes that bypass the surrounding matrix, leaving most of the rock unreplaced. Here we show -- through two-dimensional pore-network simulations -- that replacement can be effective in two regimes. The first arises when the precipitation rate significantly exceeds the dissolution rate, leading to in situ replacement in which a uniform