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<span>MIT's Earth System Initiative (ESI) is sponsoring a once-monthly
seminar series on Tuesday
afternoons at MIT featuring young faculty presenting their latest
work. In the
ESI spirit of cross-departmental community building, this semester’s
talks will
come from the </span><span class="s">Civil and Environmental
Engineering (</span><span>CEE) faculty speaking at </span>MIT’s
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (<span>EAPS)
in 54-915 and EAPS faculty speaking at
the Parsons Lab (48-316). All talks will begin promptly at 4:00 p.m.
and be
followed by a social hour at 5:00 p.m....with catered snacks, I might
add.<br><br></span>
<p><span>Please
don’t miss these opportunities to sample the variety of ESI-affiliated
research
at MIT, meet new colleagues and make new research connections. It
couldn’t be easier.</span></p><p><span><br>
</span></p>
<p><span>Here
is the line-up for this spring:</span></p>
<p><b><span>Tuesday,
February 9: Ruben Juanes, 54-915 @ 4pm</span></b> </p>
<p><b><span>Tuesday,
March 9: Tanja Bosak, 48-316 @ 4pm</span></b> </p>
<p><b><span>Tuesday,
April 6: Jesse Kroll, 54-915 @ 4pm</span></b> </p>
<p><b><span>Tuesday,
May 4: Taylor Perron, 48-316 @ 4pm</span></b> </p>
<p><b><span>Tuesday,
June 1: Janelle Thompson, 54-915 @ 4pm<br>
</span></b></p>
<p><b><span></span></b><span>First up is Ruben Juanes, ARCO Assistant
Professor in Energy Studies at CEE.</span> </p>
<p><span>On
Tuesday, February 9, at 4:00 p.m. in 54-915, Ruben will regale us with
his talk:</span></p><p><span><br></span> </p>
<p><span>*************************</span> </p>
<p><b><i><span>Non-equilibrium
physics of multiphase flow in porous media: Origin of gravity fingers</span></i></b>
</p>
<p><span>Simultaneous
flow of multiphase fluids through porous media is a pervasive natural
phenomenon—such as when water infiltrates soil, and during the
formation of
methane hydrates in ocean sediments and permafrost. It also is central
to
critical energy technologies, like production of oil and gas reservoirs
and CO2
injection into geologic formations. Yet our ability to model multiphase
flow at
the macroscopic scale is still in a stage of infancy.</span> </p>
<p><span>I
present a new approach to modeling multiphase flow that incorporates
one basic
feature—a system out of thermodynamic equilibrium. To demonstrate this
approach, I examine the infiltration of water into soil to solve a
long-standing mystery in soil physics: why do the infiltration fronts
lead to
preferential flow paths—aka gravity fingers? The answer has direct
implications
for predicting contaminant travel times through the vadose zone,
recharge rates
in shallow aquifers, and the susceptibility of soils to desertification.</span>
</p>
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