Our knowledge of stalagmite formation will be possible by examining the jumping behavior. This behavior may be influenced by the discovery that it depends on the thickness of the liquid coating on which the droplets fall.
Stalagmites rise above the cave floor as mineral-rich water drips from the ceiling into a cave and carries calcite-forming ions. To better understand how essential ions disperse and combine, the researchers conducted a laboratory experiment to examine falling drops hitting a thin layer of water. Near the impact site, the high-speed video showed various splash "crowns" whose shapes vary depending on the thickness of the water film and the relative strength of the surface tension.
The findings can also be applied to other scenarios, such as torrential rains hitting crops in agriculture, where viruses can spread by jump and develop patterns of stalagmite formation.
Justine Parmentier of the University of Liège in Belgium and colleagues applied paint to both the drop fluid and the film fluid to observe the mixing that occurs during a drop splash. They discovered that for thin films less than 100 m thick, the drop creates a rapid jump with a small crown that disperses into small droplets. Scientists discovered that the liquid drop concentrated in a small area near the point of impact after splashing.
On the other hand, drops hitting thicker films produced longer lasting crowns that rose a few centimeters before falling inward. Because of this behavior, the droplet and the film were mixed rather unevenly. According to the researchers, future stalagmite growth models should take into account the variability of this thickness because the amount of mixing depends on the film thickness.
Source: physics.aps.org/articles/v16/86
📩 26/05/2023 17:50