Digital Image Correlation data from oblique convergence experiments with wet kaolin

Experiments of oblique convergence at angles of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 degrees from the margin within wet kaolin. One suite of experiments, denoted as ‘precut’, has a vertical surface precut within the clay with an electrified wire. The precut surface lies directly above the basal oblique dislocation. The other suite of experiments is ‘uncut’. Regardless of whether the experiments have a precut surface, slip partitioned fault systems, develop and persist in the experiments. Such systems have two simultaneously active faults with similar strike but different slip sense. Slip partitioning also develops regardless of whether the system first grows a reverse fault or strike slip fault in the experiment. The sequence and nature of strike-slip and reverse fault development depends on present of existing cut and convergence angle.

This data set includes time series of incremental displacement maps for eleven experiments performed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in January 2017 and March 2018 as well as animations of strain and uplift. The dataset includes the 30˚ convergence experiment with precut vertical surface but the 30˚ uncut experiment has not yet been performed. The time series data are organized into 11 netCDF files. The name of each file states the obliquity of convergence and whether the vertical surface was precut or not.

Each netCDF file contains the following

• ux = the incremental displacement field within the ROI (Region Of Interest) parallel to the margin (x-direction). The third dimension in the array corresponds to increment of deformation through the experiment. Units are mm.
• uy = the incremental displacement field within the ROI perpendicular to the margin (y-direction). The third dimension in the array corresponds to increment of deformation through the experiment. Units are mm.
• x = position parallel to the margin. Units are mm.
• y = position perpendicular to the margin. Units are mm.

The incremental displacements are calculated from DIC of photographs taken every 30 seconds using PIVlab (Thielicke, 2019). The net stepper motor speed is ~0.5 mm/min.

The animations show strain evolution of all eleven experiments and uplift evolution of the 10 degree precut experiment. The strain evolution experiments overlay colormaps of incremental strain between successive photos on photographs of the experiment. Color saturation indicates the strain rate and hue indicates the slip vector. The uplift maps were made from stereovision analysis from pairs of photos. In most experiments, decorrelation of portions of the map prevented us from producing high quality uplift evolution animations from the start to the end of the experiment. Only the 10 degree convergence with precut vertical surface experiment had full coherence of uplift signal throughout the experiment and that animation.