Mudcrack
sedimentary feature resulting from the drying of a clay-rich sediment
Mudcracks (also known as mud cracks, desiccation cracks or cracked mud) are sedimentary structures formed as muddy sediment dries and contracts. Crack formation also occurs in clay-bearing soils as a result of a reduction in water content.
Formation of mudcrack
Naturally forming mudcracks start as wet, muddy sediment dries up and contracts. A strain is developed because the top layer shrinks while the material below stays the same size. When this strain becomes large enough, channel cracks form in the dried-up surface to relieve the strain. Individual cracks spread and join up, forming a polygonal, interconnected network of forms called "tesselations." If the strain continues to build, the polygons start to curl upwards. This characteristic can be used in geology to understand the original orientation of a rock. Cracks may later be filled with sediment and form casts over the base.
Typically, the initial crack pattern is dominated by T-shaped junctions. If a mudfield is repeatedly wetted and dried, it can be annealed to a pattern dominated by Y-shaped junctions, as it is thermodynamically favored like columnar jointing and polygonal patterned ground.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mudcrack” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.