[Geoqus] EGU 2011 modelling session: Digital bits and glass beads

[Susanne Buiter]

(with apologies for multiple postings)

Dear colleagues,

We would like to draw your attention to a session on analogue and
numerical modelling at the forthcoming EGU congress in Vienna, 3-8 April
2011. We hope that you find interest in the session description, and
that you and your co-workers will be able to contribute to the debate,
which, hopefully, would be very vibrant!

Please remember that the abstract deadline is next Monday 10 January!

Our invited presenters are:
Greg Houseman - University of Leeds, UK
Regis Mourgues - Universite du Maine, France

More information on our session can be found below and on:
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2011/session/7180

Looking forward to seeing you in Vienna,
Yossi, Susanne, Jean-Pierre, Guido and Taras


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TS9.1/GD2.5
Digital bits and glass beads: Progress in analogue and numerical
modelling of tectonic processes

Convener: Yossi Mart
Co-Conveners: Susanne Buiter, Jean-Pierre Brun, Guido Schreurs, Taras
Gerya

Abstract Submission:
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2011/abstractsubmission/7180
Abstract Deadline: 10 January 2011

Session Description:
Some 200 years ago, Sir James Hall experimented with layers of cloth in
his efforts to explain rock folding, and thus initiated analogue
structural modelling. Some 160 years later, numerical modelling of plate
tectonic and mantle convection processes took off during the 'plate
tectonic revolution'. Since most geological processes are too slow to
observe and measure directly, the modelled experiment is still an
exceptional tool in exploring the dynamics of both structural and
tectonic processes. The two methods of modelling are now commonly
applied to investigate tectonic processes, and both have their pros and
cons. Numerical models have in general great flexibility in choosing
geometries, boundary conditions, lithologies and rheologies, all of
which are more constrained in analogue experiments. But the complexities
of some numerical techniques may limit their user-friendliness and 3D
setups are still more straightforward in analogue models.

We invite contributions of the two modelling methods of the four basic
processes of global tectonics: continental break-up and ocean rifting;
marine and continental transform faulting; subduction and the opening of
back-arc basins; and the closure of oceans and continental collision, at
all scales. Significant contributions to deciphering these aspects of
tectonics have been published during the last 20 years, and it seems
that a vigorous discussion of the findings of such models, and the
comparison between the advantages of both modelling methods could
re-illuminate the basic concepts of tectonics, minted some 40 years ago.