This data set includes videos depicting the surface evolution (time-lapse photography, topography data and Digital Image Correlation [DIC] analysis) of 11 analogue models, divided in three model series (A, B and C), simulating rifting and subsequent inversion tectonics. In these models we test how orthogonal or oblique extension, followed by either orthogonal or oblique compression, as well as syn-rift sedimentation, influenced the reactivation of rift structures and the development of new inversion structures. We compare these models with an intracontinental inverted basin in NE Brazil (Araripe Basin). All experiments were performed at the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of the University of Bern (UB).
We used an experimental set-up involving two long mobile sidewalls, two rubber sidewalls (fixed between the mobile walls, closing the short model ends), and a mobile and a fixed base plate. We positioned a 5 cm high block consisting of an intercalation of foam (1 cm thick) and Plexiglas (0.5 cm thick) bars on the top of the base plates. Then we added layers of viscous and brittle analogue materials representing the ductile and brittle lower and upper crust in our experiments, which were 3 cm and 6 cm thick, respectively. A seed made of the same viscous material was positioned at the base of the brittle layer, in order to localize the formation of an initial graben in our models. The standard model deformation rate was 20 mm/h, over a duration of 2 hours for a total of 40 mm of divergence, followed by 2 hours of convergence at the same rate (except for Models B3 and C3, since the oblique rifting did not create space for 40 mm of orthogonal inversion). For syn-rift sedimentation, we applied an intercalation of feldspar and quartz sand in the graben. Model parameters and detailed description of model set-up are summarized in Table 1, and results and their interpretation can be found in Richetti et al. (2023).
In this dataset we provide top-view photos and perspective photos (to create topographic data, i.e. Digital Elevation Models, DEMs) documenting analogue model deformation. For more details on modelling setup, experimental series Wang et al. (2021), to which this dataset is supplementary material. For details on analogue materials refer to Del Ventisette et al., 2019, Maestrelli et al. (2020).
The analogue modelling experiments were carried out at the TOOLab (Tectonic Modelling Laboratory) of the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the National Research Council of Italy, Italy, and the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Florence. The laboratory work that produced these data was supported by the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) and by the Joint Research Unit (JRU) EPOS Italia. Additional analysis, following the original work, was supported by the “Monitoring Earth’s Evolution and Tectonics” (MEET) project
This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests on feldspar sand FS900S used for the simulation of brittle behaviour in crust- and lithosphere-scale analogue experiments at the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of the University of Bern (Zwaan et al. in prep; Richetti et al. in prep). The materials have been characterized by means of internal friction parameters as a remote service by the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam (Germany). According to our analysis both materials show a Mohr-Coulomb behaviour characterized by a linear failure envelope. Peak, dynamic and reactivation friction coefficients of the feldspar sand are μP = 0.65, μD = 0.57, and μR = 0.62, respectively, and the Cohesion of the feldspar sand is in the order of 5-20 Pa. An insignificant rate-weakening of less than 1% per ten-fold rate change is registered for the feldspar sand. Granular healing is also minor.
This dataset provides internal data from ring-shear tests (RST) on a feldspar sand material that has been used in tectonic experiments by among others Montanari et al. (2017) and Zwaan et al. (2020) in the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of CNR-IGG at the Earth Sciences Department of the University of Florence (Italy) as an analogue for brittle layers in the crust. The material has been characterized by means of internal friction coefficients μ and cohesions C as a remote service by the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam for the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of CNR-IGG at the Earth Sciences Department of the University of Florence (CNR-UF)
According to our analysis the material behaves as a Mohr-Coulomb material characterized by a linear failure envelope. Internal peak, dynamic and reactivation friction coefficients are μP= 0.72, μD= 0.67, and μR= 0.72 respectively. Internal cohesions C are in the range of 60 to 120 Pa. Note however that these values differ from those reported by Montanari et al. (2017), who used empirical methods to determine material properties and find a friction angle of ca. 57˚ (i.e. a friction coefficient of ca. 1.5).