Soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet

Anne Voigtländer; Morgane Houssais; Karol A. Bacik; Ian C. Bourg; Justin C. Burton; Karen E. Daniels; Sujit S. Datta; Emanuela Del Gado; Nakul S. Deshpande; Olivier Devauchelle; Behrooz Ferdowsi; Rachel Glade; Lucas Goehring; Ian J. Hewitt; Douglas Jerolmack; Ruben Juanes; Arshad Kudrolli; Ching-Yao Lai; Wei Li; Claire Masteller; Kavinda Nissanka; Allan M. Rubin; Howard A. Stone; Jenny Suckale; Nathalie M. Vriend; John S. Wettlaufer; Judy Q. Yang

doi:10.1039/D4SM00391H

Soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet

Anne Voigtländer,

†*^az Morgane Houssais,

†*^b Karol A. Bacik,

^c Ian C. Bourg,

^d Justin C. Burton,

^e Karen E. Daniels,

^f Sujit S. Datta,

^g Emanuela Del Gado,

^h Nakul S. Deshpande,

^f Olivier Devauchelle,

ⁱ Behrooz Ferdowsi,

^j Rachel Glade,

^k Lucas Goehring,

^l Ian J. Hewitt,

^m Douglas Jerolmack,

ⁿ Ruben Juanes,

^o Arshad Kudrolli,

^b Ching-Yao Lai,

^p Wei Li,

^oy Claire Masteller,

^q Kavinda Nissanka,

^e Allan M. Rubin,

^r Howard A. Stone,

*^s Jenny Suckale,

^t Nathalie M. Vriend,

^u John S. Wettlaufer

^vw and Judy Q. Yang

^x

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Geomorphology, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
E-mail: avoigtlaender@lbl.gov

^b Department of Physics, Clark University, 950 Main St, Worcester, MA 01610, USA

^c Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, USA

^d Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI), Princeton University, E208 EQuad, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA

^e Department of Physics, Emory University, 400 Dowman Dr, Atlanta, GA 30033, USA

^f North Carolina State University, 2401 Stinson Dr, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA

^g Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

^h Department of Physics, Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

ⁱ Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris Cité, 1 rue Jussieu, CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France

^j Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, jUniversity of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA

^k Earth & Environmental Sciences Department and Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Rochester, 227 Hutchison Hall, P.O. Box 270221, Rochester, NY 14627, USA

^l School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK

^m Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK

ⁿ Department of Earth & Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

^o Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

^p Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

^q Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

^r Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

^s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

^t Computational and Mathematical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

^u Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA

^v Departments of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Mathematics and Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

^w Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stockholm, Sweden

^x Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory and Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

^y Stony Brook University, Department of Civil Engineering, Stony Brook, USA

^z Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Energy Geosciences Division, 1 Cyclotron Rd, Berkeley, USA

Abstract

The soft part of the Earth's surface – the ground beneath our feet – constitutes the basis for life and natural resources, yet a general physical understanding of the ground is still lacking. In this critical time of climate change, cross-pollination of scientific approaches is urgently needed to better understand the behavior of our planet's surface. The major topics in current research in this area cross different disciplines, spanning geosciences, and various aspects of engineering, material sciences, physics, chemistry, and biology. Among these, soft matter physics has emerged as a fundamental nexus connecting and underpinning many research questions. This perspective article is a multi-voice effort to bring together different views and approaches, questions and insights, from researchers that work in this emerging area, the soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet. In particular, we identify four major challenges concerned with the dynamics in and of the ground: (I) modeling from the grain scale, (II) near-criticality, (III) bridging scales, and (IV) life. For each challenge, we present a selection of topics by individual authors, providing specific context, recent advances, and open questions. Through this, we seek to provide an overview of the opportunities for the broad Soft Matter community to contribute to the fundamental understanding of the physics of the ground, strive towards a common language, and encourage new collaborations across the broad spectrum of scientists interested in the matter of the Earth's surface.

This article is part of the themed collection: Soft Matter Recent Review Articles, 2024

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Soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet

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