Data Publication

Experimental data of analogue models of subduction investigating the interplays between mantle flow and slab pull

Guillaume, Benjamin | Funiciello, Francesca | Faccenna, Claudio

GFZ Data Services

(2021)

This dataset includes images depicting the evolution in map view and lateral view of 7 analogue experiments of subduction to better understand the interplays between slab pull and mantle flow at subduction zones. The experiments are performed under a natural gravity field and are designed to understand the influence of plate width and magnitude and direction of mantle flow on slab geometry, trench kinematics and shape, and superficial mantle deformation around the subduction zone. All experiments were performed at the Laboratory of Experimental Tectonics at the Università Roma Tre (Italy). The laboratory models consist of one viscous layer of silicone putty representing the subducting lithosphere resting on top of a tank filled with glucose syrup, representing the convective mantle. We impose a horizontal flow in the convective mantle by pushing at a constant velocity a piston in the glucose syrup below an intermediate horizontal plate representing the upper mantle-lower mantle discontinuity. The pictures show the time evolution of each experiment from the top (« top » folder) and lateral position (« lateral » folder) and were taken synchronously every 30 seconds, and downsampled to 5 minutes in this dataset. The entire set of pictures are available from the authors upon request. Model F14 is the reference model, without imposed mantle flow and with a slab width of 2000. Models F15 and F16 are models with 660 km and 4000 km, respectively. They allow us analyzing the effect of slab width in the absence of a background flow. Models F17 and F20 are models with slab width of 2000 km and a background flow coming from above the slab at velocities of 0.9 and 1.8 mm/min in the lab (corresponding to 0.9 and 2 cm/yr once scaled to nature), respectively. Models F24 and F26 are models with slab width of 2000 km and a background flow coming from below the slab at velocities of 0.9 and 1.8 mm/min in the lab (corresponding to 1.2 and 2.7 cm/yr once scaled to nature), respectively. For details on the experimental set-up, monitoring techniques and interpretation of the results, please refer to Guillaume et al. (2021) to which these data are supplementary material.

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