“Source to Sink”: A Review of Tectonics-Erosion-Sedimentation Interactions in the Analogue Experiments of Accretionary WedgeEI北大核心CSCD

It is believed that the tectonics-erosion-sedimentation interaction in the analogue experiments was essentially improved by the theory of “from source to sink”. In particular, the widespread uplift and exhumation in the western China occurred in Cenozoic can be considered to be a typical natural laboratory in the world. Here we review our current understanding from tectonic sandbox models of tectonics-erosion-sedimentation and their interactions, as well as from natural laboratory. As we known, there are widespread erosion occurred predominantly at hinterland of the accretionary wedge, in contrast to the sedimentation occurred widely at foreland of the wedge. Therefore, fold-and-thrust belts with low syntectonic sedimentation and erosion would evolve in a self-similar fashion to produce a narrow accretionary wedge, while high syntectonic sedimentation and erosion would produce accretionary wedge with very active hinterland thrusts, and a large width. Furthermore, the critically tapered wedge model suggests that the crust-scale thrust-and-fold belts under a horizontal compressive force would come into a self-similar growth of a forward-tapering wedge when it reaches a critical taper angle of the combined angles of the base dip and the wedge slope. Such a process has important influence on the tectonics-erosion- sedimentation and their interactions both in accretionary wedges and their analogue experiments. Although there is a significant similarity between the analogue experiments and natural accretionary wedges in the surface processes of tectonics- erosion-sedimentation and their interactions, it is difficult to get more universal parameters between them. It should be noted that sandbox models of the accretionary wedges in the natural laboratory would improve significantly our understanding of the theory of the tectonics-erosion-sedimentation interactions and “from source to sink”. © 2018, Science Press. All right reserved.