Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 1971
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1971pepi....4..301s&link_type=abstract
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 4, Issue 4, p. 301-321.
Physics
9
Scientific paper
The powerful method of finite elements permits almost all problems of stress analysis and analysis of finite deformations of geological structures to be presented in a mathematical form suitable for solution on a digital computer. A plane strain analysis of a boudinage structure in elastic materials brings out the barrel shape so characteristic of many natural boudins. The fill-in of newly grown minerals in the gap between boudins is afforded a plausible explanation from the mean stress distribution of the structure. sLaterally compressed multilayers of rocks tend to develop folds with a characteristic wavelength. Beginning with folds of the dominant wavelength in a five-layer system with a small amplitude/wavelength ratio, the successive changes in geometry and stress distribution were analysed for small increments in nodal velocities. The geometry of folds and the stress distribution was found to be very sensitive to changes in compressibility of the materials involved. An application of the method to isostatic adjustment was tested on a two-layer system consisting of a light layer with sinusoidal deflection at its free surface overlying a dense half space. The flattening of the free surface and the generation of a second wave at the interface as functions of time were considered to agree quite satisfactorily with theory and model experiments. Most of the characteristics of the mid-Atlantic ridge indicate that the mechanism of spreading should be searched for at a shallow depth. Modelling a cross section of the ridge down to 100 km depth gives a surface deflection undulation with sagging and thinning of the basement layer of about 1 cm/y. High values of tensile and shear stresses are concentrated in the basement layer at the crestal zone. The theory of ridge formation caused by the injection of buoyant bodies relatively close to the surface of the ocean bottom and now slowly spreading laterally finds strong support in the results of the finite element analyses.
Berner Harald
Stephansson Ove
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