Analogue modeling of lithospheric scale orocline buckling: Constraints on the evolution of the Ibero Armorican Arc

Abstract

We report on a series of analogue modeling experiments that study the oroclinal buckling process as a thick-skinned process involving the entire lithosphere. The results obtained in the experiments suggest that, during oroclinal buckling, extension in the outer arc and significant shortening in the inner arc are produced by tangential longitudinal strain as the main mechanism of deformation. The models also reveal that the mantle lithosphere thickens in different noncylindrical ways depending on the initial lithospheric mantle thickness: from almost recumbent to folding with subvertical axial planes for the thinnest to the thickest mantle lithosphere, respectively. The results provide useful insights into thick-skinned orocline buckling as it is interpreted to have happened in the Iberian-Armorican Arc.

Daniel Pastor-Galán

Científico Titular and Assistant Professor (助教) of Tectonics

My research interests include plate tectonics, paleogeogrphy and geodynamics.