UHH-Tec - Experimental tectonics laboratory
Scaled analogue modelling has become a fundamental experimental approach for testing tectonic and geodynamic hypotheses. This is achieved by scaling down the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of geological processes such that they can be studied in the laboratory over hours to days, rather than the millions of years over which they may occur in nature. The deformational behavior (shape change) of rock analogue materials under known kinematic boundary conditions is monitored in respective experiments. The validation of experimental results with field observations is a most powerful approach to elucidate the physics behind a given geodynamic process.