In this dataset we provide data for 6 experimental models of caldera collapse and subsequent resurgence monitored through geophysical sensors (a force or “impact sensor”, Piezotronics PCB 104 200B02 and a Triaxial piezoelectric accelerometer, Model 356B18). The analogue modelling experiments were carried out at the TOOLab (Tectonic Modelling Laboratory), which is a joint laboratory between the Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy and the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Florence.
The laboratory work that produced these data was partly supported by the European Plate Observing System (EPOS), by the Joint Research Unit (JRU) EPOS Italia and by the “Monitoring Earth's Evolution and Tectonics” (MEET) project (NextGenerationEU). Specifically, this work was performed in the frame of the DynamiCal project, funded by the 2° TNA-NOA call of the ILGE-MEET project.
This dataset compiles quantitative outputs from eight sandbox experiments conducted under different boundary conditions (differential extension, strong blocks, and a weak zone). It contains 3-D scanning–derived digital elevation models (DEMs) from the final stage of experiments simulating the V-shaped opening of the South China Sea. In addition, it includes particle image velocimetry (PIV) products at four extension states (25 mm, 50 mm, 75 mm, and 100 mm), together with the plotting codes used to generate the figures.
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).
This dataset provides rheometric data of silicone (Polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS SGM36)-corundum sand mixtures used for analogue modelling in Zwaan et al. (2016, 2017), Zwaan and Schreurs (2017) and in the Tectonic Modelling Lab of the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern (CH). The PDMS is produced by Dow Corning and its characteristics have been described by e.g. Rudolf et al. (2016a,b). The corundum sand (Normalkorund Braun 95.5% F120 by Carlo Bernasconi AG: https://www.carloag.ch/shop/catalog/product/view/id/643), has a grainsize of 0.088-0.125 mm and a specific density of 3.96 g cm^-3. Further rheological characteristics are described by Panien et al. (2006). The density of the tested materials ranges between 1 (pure PDMS) and 1.6 g cm^-3 (increasing corundum sand content in mixture). The material samples have been analysed in the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam using an Anton Paar Physica MCR 301 rheometer in a plate-plate configuration at room temperature. Rotational (controlled shear rate) tests with shear rates varying from 10^-4 to 10^-1 s^-1 were performed.
According to our rheometric analysis, the material is quasi Newtonian at strain rates below 10^-3*s^-1 and weakly shear rate thinning above. Viscosity and stress exponent increase systematically with density from ~4*10^4 to ~1*10^5 Pa*s and from 1.06 to 1.10, respectively. A first application of the materials tested can be found in Zwaan et al. (2016). Detailed information about the data, methodology and a list of files and formats is given in the "data description" and "list of files" that are included in the zip folder and also available via the DOI landing page.