In a discovery that reads more like abstract art than geology, researchers have observed two unexpected and bizarre patterns—dubbed “wists” and “fingers”—emerging within flowing clay, challenging long-held assumptions about how this ubiquitous material behaves under pressure. The findings, published this week in Physical Review Letters, reveal that when common clay is subjected to controlled flow conditions, it does not simply slump or slide. Instead, it spontaneously organizes itself into two distinct and surprising structural phases. The first pattern, which the team has termed “wists,” describes a series of subtle,…
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