Rifts in spreading wax layers
| Autor: | Eberhard Bodenschatz, J. Lewis Ford, Rolf Ragnarsson, Christian D. Santangelo |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 1996 |
| Předmět: |
Wax
Materials science Rift Condensed matter physics Constant velocity General Physics and Astronomy FOS: Physical sciences Crust Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS) Nonlinear Sciences - Chaotic Dynamics 010502 geochemistry & geophysics Nonlinear Sciences - Pattern Formation and Solitons 01 natural sciences 010305 fluids & plasmas Plate tectonics visual_art 0103 physical sciences Fracture (geology) Perpendicular visual_art.visual_art_medium Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) 010306 general physics Petrology Geology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Physical Review Letters |
| Popis: | We report experimental results on the rift formation between two freezing wax plates. The plates were pulled apart with constant velocity, while floating on the melt, in a way akin to the tectonic plates of the earth's crust. At slow spreading rates, a rift, initially perpendicular to the spreading direction, was found to be stable, while above a critical spreading rate a "spiky" rift with fracture zones almost parallel to the spreading direction developed. At yet higher spreading rates a second transition from the spiky rift to a zig-zag pattern occurred. In this regime the rift can be characterized by a single angle which was found to be dependent on the spreading rate. We show that the oblique spreading angles agree with a simple geometrical model. The coarsening of the zig-zag pattern over time and the three-dimensional structure of the solidified crust are also discussed. Comment: 4 pages, Postscript file |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|