Instability of a continuously inhomogeneous viscoelastic half-space under initial stress

✍ Scribed by M.A. Biot

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1960
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 522 KB
• Volume: 270
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(60)90589-5

✦ Synopsis

Surface folding due to instability is analyzed for continuously inhomogeneous halfspace of viscoelastic properties. The medium is under the combined action of a horizontal compression and gravity. The material is of uniform density. Its viscoelastic properties vary exponentially with depth so that it degenerates into a fluid at large depth. It is assumed that the deformations verify the thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes. Folding wavelengths are evaluated. The general correspondence principle as formulated earlier by the author shows the results to be immediately applicable to either viscoelastic or purely elastic media. A numerical application to the geophysical scale indicates that a continuous viscosity" gradient resulting from the temperature variation with depth cannot account for orogenesis by the mechanism of instability in compression.