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Insights into the velocity-dependent geometry and internal strain in accretionary wedges from analogue models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

BIN DENG ,
LEI JIANG ,
GAOPING ZHAO ,
RUI HUANG ,
YUANBO WANG  and
SHUGEN LIU
BIN DENG*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation/Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China, 610059 Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin
LEI JIANG
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation/Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China, 610059
GAOPING ZHAO
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation/Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China, 610059
RUI HUANG
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation/Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China, 610059
YUANBO WANG
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation/Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China, 610059
SHUGEN LIU
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation/Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China, 610059
*
‡Author for correspondence: dengb@tcd.ie
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Abstract

Although the brittle material in analogue models is characterized by a linear Navier-Coulomb behaviour and rate-independent deformation, the geometry and style of deformation in accretionary wedges is sensitive to shortening velocity. In this study we have constructed a series of analogue models with various shortening velocities in order to study the influence of shortening velocity on the geometry and kinematics of accretionary wedges. Model results illustrate how shortening velocity has an important influence on the geometry and kinematics of the resulting wedge. In general, for models having similar bulk shortening, the accretionary wedges with higher velocities of shortening are roughly steeper, higher and longer, as well as having larger critical wedge angles and height. It accommodates a number of foreland-vergent thrusts, larger fault spacing and displacement rates than those of low- to medium-velocity shortening, which indicates a weak velocity-dependence in geometry of the wedge. Moreover, models with a high velocity of shortening undergo larger amounts of volumetric strain and total layer-parallel shortening than models with low- to medium-velocity shortening. The former accommodate a greater development of back thrusts and asymmetric structures; a backwards-to-forwards style of wedge growth therefore occurs in the frontal zone under high-velocity shortening.

Keywords

accretionary wedgeanalogue modelshortening velocityvelocity-dependent geometry
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 155 , Issue 5 , July 2018 , pp. 1089 - 1104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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