This data set includes the results of digital image correlation analysis applied to analogue modelling experiments (Table 1) on the effect of weakness during distributed crustal extension performed at the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. Ten generic analogue models made of a layer of Quartz sand (G12, Rosenau et al., 2018) including a weak silicone oil “seed” (PDMS G30M, Rudolf et al., 2016) to localize deformation have been extended on top of a basal foam block. A benchmark experiment (basal foam only) and a reference model (layer of sand without seed) are also reported. Detailed descriptions of the experiments can be found in Osagiede et al. (2021) to which this data set is supplement. The models have been monitored by means of digital image correlation (DIC) analysis (Adam et al., 2005). DIC analysis yields quantitative information about model surface deformation in 2D and 3D. The data presented here are visualized as finite strain and displacement maps as well as cumulative strain and displacement profiles.
This data set includes videos depicting the surface evolution (time-lapse photographs and Particle Image Velocimetry or PIV analysis) of 38 analogue models, in five model series (A-E), simulating rift tectonics. In these experiments we examined the influence of differently oriented mantle and crustal weaknesses on rift system development during multiphase rifting (i.e. rifting involving changing divergence directions or -rates) using brittle-viscous set-ups. All experiments were performed at the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of the University of Bern (UB).
The brittle and viscous layers, representing the upper an lower crust, were 3 cm and 1 cm thick, respectively, whereas a mantle weakness was simulated using the edge of a moving basal plate (a velocity discontinuity or VD). Crustal weaknesses were simulated using “seeds” (ridges of viscous material at the base of the brittle layers that locally weaken these brittle layers). The divergence rate for the Model A reference models was 20 mm/h so that the model duration of 2:30 h yielded a total divergence of 5 cm (so that e = 17%, given an initial model width of ca. 30 cm). Multiphase rifting model series B and C involved both a slow (10 mm/h) and fast (100 mm/h) rifting phase of 2.5 cm divergence each, for a total of 5 cm of divergence over a 2:45 h period. Multiphase rifting models series D and E had the same divergence rates (20 mm/h) as the Series A reference models, but involved both an orthogonal (α = 0˚) and oblique rifting (α = 30˚) phase of 2.5 cm divergence each, for a total of 5 cm of divergence over a 2:30 h period. In our models the divergence obliquity angle α was defined as the angle between the normal to the central model axis and the direction of divergence. The orientation and arrangements of the simulated mantle and crustal weaknesses is defined by angle θ (defined as the direction of the weakness with respect to the model axis. An overview of model parameters is provided in Table 1, and detailed descriptions of the model set-up and results, as well as the monitoring techniques can be found in Zwaan et al. (2021).
The southern Andes are regarded as a typical subduction orogen formed by oblique plate convergence. Despite decades of studies, there is considerable uncertainty as to how deformation is kinematically partitioned in the upper plate. Using scaled analogue experiments modelling, we test the concept of dextral transpression for this orogen. We advocate that the GPS velocity field portrays interseismic deformation related to deformation of strong crust north, and weak crust south, of 37°S. Contrary to the popular hypotheses that the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone, a prominent intra-arc deformation zone, takes up most of the plate boundary-parallel dextral strike-slip, we find that dextral transpression affects the entire model orogen through tectonic segmentation of crust.
Moreover, prominent, regularly spaced sinistral oblique-slip thrust faults, interpreted as antithetic Riedel shears, developed spontaneously in all of our experiments and call into question the general believe that their NW-striking natural equivalents formed from pre-Andean discontinuities. Our experiments prompt us to reconsider the apparently well-established geodynamic concept that strain and margin-parallel displacement is localized on a few margin-parallel faults in the southern Andes.