Skip to main content
Dryad

Data for: Wall fracturing versus mechanical instability as competing intrusion mechanisms of dikes: Insights from laboratory experiments

Abstract

Igneous dike intrusion is a primary crust-forming process. Understanding its governing mechanism is very crucial for studies related to the lithosphere. We performed liquid injection experiments in the laboratory with two new crust analog model materials, i) ultrasound transmission gel (USTG) and gel wax. To conduct a properly scaled model experiment, we test their rheology using an Anton Paar M302e rheometer. The measured rheological data were presented in this present data repository. We identified three mechanisms from our laboratory studies: a) fracturing, b) interfacial instability, and c) hybrid, i.e., a combination of both. These three mechanisms give rise to distinct 3D geometries. To quantitatively analyze their geometric shapes, we performed fractal, aspect ratio, and skewness-kurtosis analysis. The procedure and the data collected during the analysis were also presented in the current data repository.