This data set includes images and videos depicting the evolution of deformation and topography of 17 analogue experiments c passive margin development, to better understand the ongoing tectonics along the western margin of Afar, East Africa. The tectonic background that forms the basis for the experimental design is found in Zwaan et al. 2019 and 2020a-b, and references therein. The experiments, in an enhanced gravity field in a large-capacity centrifuge, examined the influence of brittle layer thickness, strength contrast, syn-rift sedimentation and oblique extension on a brittle-viscous system with a strong and weak viscous domain.
All experiments were performed at the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of of the Istituto di Geoscience e Georisorse - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-IGG) and of the Earth Sciences Department of the University of Florence (CNR/UF). The brittle layer (sand) thickness ranged between 6 and 20 mm, the underlying viscous layer, split in a competent and weak domain (both viscous mixtures), was always 10 mm thick. Asymmetric extension was applied by removing a 1.5 mm thick spacer at the side of the model at every time step, allowing the analogue materials to spread when enhanced gravity was applied during a centrifuge run.
Differential stretching of the viscous material creates flexure and faulting in the overlying brittle layer. Total extension amounted to 10.5 mm over 7 intervals for Series 1 models that aimed at understanding generic passive margin development in a generic orthogonal extension setting, whereas up to 16.5 mm of extension was applied for the additional Series 2 models aiming at reproducing the tectonic phases in Afar. In models involving sedimentation, sand was filled in at time steps 2, 4 and 6 (i.e. after 3, 6 and 9 mm of extension). Detailed descriptions of the experiments, monitoring techniques and tectonic interpretation of the model results are presented in Zwaan et al. (2020c) to which these data are supplementary.
This data set includes 40 videos (+ 1 image) depicting the surface evolution of 39 experiments on crustal extension, as well as 4D CT imagery (figures and videos) of 6 of these experiments. The experiments examined the influence of the method for driving extension (foam base, rubber base, plate base or conveyor base) for localization of deformation in overlying layers of brittle-only and brittle-viscous materials representing the earth’s crust. All experiments were performed at the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of the University of Bern. Detailed descriptions of the experiments and monitoring techniques can be found in Zwaan et al. (2019) to which these data are supplementary material.All experiments were monitored with top view photographs (SLR camera Nikon D-100 6.1 MPx). The photograph time steps depend on the applied extension velocity, but are generally 1 or 2 min. Six experiments were also monitored with an X-Ray computed tomography technique using a 64 slice Siemens Somatom Definition AS X-ray CT-scanner (Zwaan et al., 2016) with varying time intervals (5-30 min). CT-data was analyzed with the software OsiriX (Pixmeo SARL).