Buckling of the oceanic lithosphere from geophysical data and experiments

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Abstract
Two major hypotheses have been advanced for the formation of the long wavelength (100–300 km) undulations of oceanic basement and overlying sediments developed in the central Indian Ocean basin: whole layer folding (buckling) and local thickening (inverse boudinage). Using appropriately scaled two‐layer analogue models for the oceanic lithosphere comprising a brittle layer above a ductile layer, we show that buckling of the entire brittle layer is likely to be the mode of deformation. However, the lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary remains undisturbed. We find a relationship between the thickness of the brittle layer and the wavelength of folding such that the wavelength is 7 times the brittle layer thickness.