Lorena Hernández-Filiberto – ESR 4.

About me

During my Geology degree studies at the University of Alicante (Spain), I developed a particular interest in the areas of geochemistry, petrology, mineralogy and crystallography. I have always believed in the importance of knowing how the smallest particles influence on meso and macro-scale processes such as rock and mineral-forming processes or the fluid flow in porous media.

These led me to enroll in a Master’s program, on the mineral exploration field, at the University of Granada (Spain) in order to strengthen my knowledge about these topics and pursue my career goal in the research field.

About the project

It is now known that the presence of aqueous fluids is common in the Earth’s crust. Fractures, grain boundaries and porosity enable fluids to penetrate through the rocks as water continues to migrate from its source. This fluid-rock interaction leads to relevant processes such as potential mineral replacements, the formation of new minerals, element mobilization, the generation of new fluid pathways, and subsequent variations in rock density. Evidence for such interactions are commonly found in many rock samples as well as in laboratory experiments.

My project will focus on studying natural rock samples that potentially underwent through complex fluid-mineral interactions at some point and combine it with laboratory experiments where I will be testing rock and mineral samples with different solutions and temperatures, not only to understand these reactions, but to focus on the importance of fluid pathways: their role on fluid-mineral reactions and how these reactions may develop new fluid pathways.