Articles | Volume 12, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1749-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1749-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Aug 2021
Research article |
| 10 Aug 2021
| 10 Aug 2021
Buoyancy versus shear forces in building orogenic wedges
Lorenzo G. Candioti
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institut des sciences de la Terre, Bâtiment Géopolis, Quartier UNIL-Mouline, Université de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne (VD), Switzerland
Thibault Duretz
Univ Rennes, CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, UMR 6118, 35000 Rennes, France
Evangelos Moulas
Institute of Geosciences & Mainz Institute of Multiscale Modeling (M³ODEL), Johannes-Gutenberg University, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Stefan M. Schmalholz
Institut des sciences de la Terre, Bâtiment Géopolis, Quartier UNIL-Mouline, Université de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne (VD), Switzerland
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Jean Furstoss, Carole Petit, Clément Ganino, Marc Bernacki, and Daniel Pino-Muñoz
Solid Earth, 12, 2369–2385, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2369-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2369-2021, 2021
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In the first part of this article, we present a new methodology that we have developed to model the deformation and the microstructural evolutions of olivine rocks, which make up the main part of the Earth upper mantle. In a second part, using this methodology we show that microstructural features such as small grain sizes and preferential grain orientations can localize strain at the same intensity and can act together to produce an even stronger strain localization.
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Short summary
We quantify the relative importance of forces driving the dynamics of mountain building using two-dimensional computer simulations of long-term coupled lithosphere–upper-mantle deformation. Buoyancy forces can be as high as shear forces induced by far-field plate motion and should be considered when studying the formation of mountain ranges. The strength of rocks flooring the oceans and the density structure of the crust control deep rock cycling and the topographic elevation of orogens.
We quantify the relative importance of forces driving the dynamics of mountain building using...
