Wax Tectonics Pattern formation due to morphological instabilities has recently attracted considerable interest.
Prominent examples are in directional solidification and fracture pattern.
In this research program we are investigating a pattern forming system where solidification, fracture, and creep are important. Our experiments are concerned with geomorhological pattern formation occurring at the mid ocean ridges. In recent years our knowledge of the structure of the ocean floors have vastly increased. Satellite altimetry data of the ocean surface combined with the ship-bathymetry and paleomagnetism data led to an unprecedented knowledge of the oceanfloors. Recently it has been found that the structure of the mid ocean ridges is not only characterized by a rift that is interrupted and offsetted along the rift axis by transform faults and fault lines, but also that rotating micro plates of the size of a few hundred kilometers are found between the two large plates moving apart.