Rocks deform, fracture, dissolve and melt over time, yet most of what we know about these processes comes from before-and-after snapshots. Three-dimensional and time-resolved (4D) X-ray imaging changes this by letting us follow the same sample as it evolves under stress, fluid flow, and changing temperature, at scales from pores to the whole specimen. This session brings together researchers who use laboratory microCT, synchrotron imaging and neutron tomography to observe these processes directly, and those who turn the resulting images into quantitative models.
We welcome contributions that use 3D and 4D imaging to study fracture and faulting, compaction and creep, multiphase and reactive flow, melt and bubble migration, and volcanic and magmatic processes. We equally encourage methodological advances: new experimental rigs, digital volume correlation, machine-learning segmentation, and workflows linking images to numerical simulations (FEM, DEM, lattice-Boltzmann) and theory.
By connecting rock physics, volcanology and materials science, the session aims to build a shared community around a common question: what do we learn when we can watch the process, not just its result?