Quantitative comparisons of analogue models of brittle wedge dynamics

SCHREURS; GEOMOD2008 ANALOGUE TEAM; DANIEL YAGUPSKY

Congreso; EGU2010; 2010

this study, we present a direct comparison of experimental results of 14 analogue modelling laboratories usingprescribed set-ups. A quantitative analysis of the results will document the variability among models and willallow an appraisal of reproducibility and limits of interpretation. This has direct implications for comparisonsbetween structures in analogue models and natural field examples. All laboratories used the same frictionalanalogue materials (quartz and corundum sand) and prescribed model-building techniques (sieving and levelling).Although each laboratory used its own experimental apparatus, the same type of self-adhesive foil was used tocover the base and all the walls of the experimental apparatus in order to guarantee identical boundary conditions(i.e. identical shear stresses at the base and walls). Three experimental set-ups using only brittle frictional materialswere examined. In each of the three set-ups the model was shortened by a vertical wall, which moved with respectto the fixed base and the three remaining sidewalls. The minimum width of the model (dimension parallel tomobile wall) was also prescribed.