TecLab - Tectonic Modelling Laboratory (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
The tectonic modelling laboratory (TecLab) is the main research facility of the Tectonics research group (https://www.uu.nl/en/research/department-of-earth-sciences/tectonics), and a key infrastructure in the Earth Simulation Laboratory (ESL) of the Department of Earth Sciences at Utrecht University (UU) (https://www.uu.nl/en/research/department-of-earth-sciences). Research conducted in the TecLab aims to improve our fundamental understanding of the multi-scale (spatial and temporal) parameters and rock behaviour that control the mutual interaction of deep Earth and surface processes. To pursue this key objective, research performed in the TecLab is typically integrated with and strongly tied to field and numerical modelling studies, enabling to develop novel approaches and methodologies. This unique integrated modelling approach has established the TecLab as a renowned tectonic modelling laboratory, also evidenced by the long term involvement of the TecLab in a wide range of national and international research projects and programs (e.g. ESF TOPO-EUROPE; EU-Topomod; EU-Subitop; EU-GEMEX). Moreover, the TecLab is linked also to the Dutch Research Centre for Integrated Solid Earth Sciences, as well as to the European Plate Observatory System (EPOS). And at UU the TecLab facility plays a key role in undergraduate and graduate education as well as in outreach activities. In the TecLab, we use "scaled physical analogue models" to better understand (large scale) deformation processes that occur in the Earth’s lithosphere in response to plate motions or intra-plate deformation; examples include the breakup of the Earth's crust and the formation of sedimentary basins, the formation of mountain ranges or the development of subduction zones. The spatial scale of applications typically stretches from reservoir and basin (hundreds of meters to kilometre) to plate (hundreds of kilometres) scale. Different to most other analogue modelling laboratories worldwide, TecLab research strongly focusses on developing novel ideas and methodologies to address deformation processes on the scale of the entire lithosphere. The fundamental as well as applied research performed in the TecLab is relevant not only for research into long and short term deformation processes, but also for geo-hazards and geo-resources (e.g. oil & gas, geothermal energy). In the last 20 years many collaborative tectonic modelling studies in the TecLab have been applied successfully to a range of natural laboratories, each characterised by a unique geodynamic setting and different plate tectonic processes. Examples of such integrated, process-oriented case studies include the formation of mountain ranges (e.g. European Alps, the Caucasus, the Pyrenees), the evolution of sedimentary basin systems (e.g. the Pannonian Basin, the Aegean basins), the break-up of continents (the East African Rift) and associated formation of new oceanic basins (the Barents Sea; the South Atlantic).
The TecLab infrastructure includes:
- devices for determining the physical properties of the analogue materials (rheometer, Krantz-type shear apparatus, pycnometers etc.)
- several, differently sized deformation boxes connected to stepping motors to run the analogue experiments
- equipment for monitoring and analysing the experiments. The latter includes next to standard digital photography and sectioning of the experiments, novel non-destructive CT and surface scanning techniques to calculate incremental and finite displacement and strain fields in 3D.
For more information please visit the TecLab website: https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/faculty-of-geosciences/collaboration/labs-and-facilities/teclab or e-mail the TecLab: teclab.geo@uu.nl