Indenter growth in analogue models of Alpine‐type deformation

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Abstract
A series of analogue experiments were carried out to simulate continental convergence, as seen in a profile through the Central Alps. A rigid indenter, representing the Adriatic plate, was driven laterally into a sand pack representing the brittle upper crust of Europe, detached and thickening above its subducting ductile lower crust. The rigid indenter advanced at the same steady rate in each experiment, but the dip of its front face was steepened in 15° increments from 15° to 90°. Where the rigid indenter face dipped at 45° or less, a sand wedge rose and was bound by a series of forekinks that nucleated at the toe of the indenter. Where the face of the rigid indenter dipped 60° or more, the wedge was defined by a single forekink and one or more backkinks that nucleated from a point advancing in front of the indenter toe. We interpret these results as indicating that slices of the sand pack and rising wedge are transferred across kink bands to build an “effective” indenter with a frontal dip closer to that dictated by the changing shear strength of the sand pile, which thickens vertically as it shortens laterally. One of our models (with a rigid indenter dipping 75°) simulates most of the major structures shown in recent syntheses of surface geology and deep seismic data in the Central Alps, without the isostatic lithospheric depression. This model accounts for the late collisional stage (Oligocene to Present) complex strain and metamorphic histories in the core of the orogenic wedge, the rapid rise and extrusion of small pips of Alpine eclogites, and the current passivity of the Insubric Line. It also emphasizes that lateral extension along gently dipping “thrusts” (orogen‐normal horizontal escape) is confined to the extruded portion of the rising wedge.