Predicting the Evolution of Faulting in Accretionary Prisms with Work Optimization: Insights from Numerical Simulations of Analog Experiments

Abstract:

Accretionary wedges develop through the episodic, discrete propagation of imbricate thrust faults at the deformation front and advancement of the decollement surface. In this process, diffuse compaction, propagation of new fractures, and slip and opening along preexisting fractures accommodate cumulative deformation to differing degrees throughout the evolution of the wedge. Previous analyses suggest that the energy budget reveals how strain is partitioned within this episodic system near the onset of thrust faulting. In this contribution, we perform a work optimization analysis with 2D, boundary element method, Fric2D numerical models of accretionary wedges. We use the displacement field captured through particle image velocimetry analysis of scaled physical experiments in dry sand to inform the loading applied to the numerical models. We introduce planar faults of various dips and locations within the wedge, and calculate the gain in efficiency (ΔW_ext) produced by adding each fault to the wedge. We consider the faults that produce the largest ΔW_ext to be most energetically favorable, and thus likely to develop at the onset of discrete failure in the wedge. We compare the predictions of this parametric work optimization approach to the geometry of through-going faults observed in the physical analog experiment. We find that the numerical work analysis closely predicts the dip and location of the first forethrust observed in the experiment, as well as the dip of the first backthrust in the experiment. A similar parametric study with planar faults of differing lengths in the modeled wedge shows that the dip of the fault that optimizes work can vary with fault length, and that forethrusts consistently produce a greater gain in efficiency than backthrusts of equal lengths.