page_title: Analogue modelling (geology)
section_title: Gravity field
hierarchical_section_title: Analogue modelling (geology) / Components / Lab environment / Gravity field
caption_attribution_description: English: This a simple analogue model of s subduction zone. It is a combination Shemenda (1994)’s and Faccenna et al. (1999)’s model setting. (update)
context_page_description: Analogue modelling is a laboratory experimental method using uncomplicated physical models with certain simple scales of time and length to model geological scenarios and simulate geodynamic evolutions.
  There are numerous limitations affecting the direct study of the Earth. Firstly, the timescales of geodynamic processes are exceptionally long, and most of the processes started long before human records. Secondly, the length scales of geodynamic processes are enormous, and most of them happen at depth within the Earth. Thus, scientists began making proportional small-scale simulations of features in the natural world to test geological ideas. Analogue models can directly show the whole structural pattern in 3D and cross-section. They are helpful in understanding the internal structures and the progressive development of Earth's deforming regions.
  Analogue modelling has been widely used for geodynamic analysis and to illustrate the development of different geological phenomena. Models can explore small-scale processes, such as folding and faulting, or large-scale processes, such as tectonic movement and interior Earth structures.
context_section_description: Because the major research object of analogue modelling is Earth, the gravity field that most experiments utilize is ordinarily the Earth's field of gravity. However, many models are carried out using simulated gravity, for example, by use of a centrifuge. These technologies are usually used in studying development of gravity-controlled structures, such as dome formation, and diapirism.
caption: The simple analogue modelling of a subduction zone. The materials this model uses are sand mixture and silicone putty for the continental crust (left in layered brown) and oceanic crust (right in layered brown), and glucose syrup for the asthenosphere (greenish-blue liquid in the glass tank). There is a heater in the tank for heating the liquid.[2][19][20]