Digital image correlation data from laboratory subduction megathrust models

This data set includes digital image correlation data from analog earthquakes experiments. The data consists of grids of surface strain and time series of surface displacement (horizontal and vertical) and strain. The data have been derived using a stereo camera setup and processed with LaVision Davis 10 software. Detailed descriptions of the experiments and results regarding the surface pattern of the strain can be found in Kosari et al. (2022), to which this data set is supplementary. We use an analog seismotectonic scale model approach (Rosenau et al., 2019 and 2017) to generate a catalog of analog megathrust earthquakes (Table 1). The presented experimental setup is modified from the 3D setup used in Rosenau et al. (2019) and Kosari et al. ( 2020). The subduction forearc model wedge is set up in a glass-sided box (1000 mm across strike, 800mm along strike, and 300 mm deep) with a dipping, elastic basal conveyor belt and a rigid backwall. An elastoplastic sand-rubber mixture (50 vol.% quartz sandG12: 50 vol.% EPDM rubber) is sieved into the setup representing a 240 km long forearc segment from the trench to the volcanic arc. The shallow part of the wedge includes a basal layer of sticky rice grains characterized by unstable stick-slip sliding representing the seismogenic zone. Stick-slip sliding in rice is governed by a rate-and-state dependent friction law similar to natural rocks. According to Coulomb wedge theory (Dahlen et al., 1984), two types of wedge configurations have been designed: a “compressional” configuration represents an interseismically compressional and coseismically stable wedge (compressional configuration), and a “critical” configuration, which is interseismically stable (close to critically compressional) and may reach a critical extensional state coseismically (critical configuration). In the compressional configuration, a flat-top (surface slope α=0) wedge overlies a single large rectangular in map view stick-slip patch (Width*Length=200*800 mm) over a 15-degree dipping basal thrust. In the critical configuration, the surface angle of the elastoplastic wedge varies from the coastal segment onshore (α=10) to the inner-wedge offshore (α=15) segments over a 5-degree dipping basal thrust. Slow continuous compression of the wedge by moving the basal conveyor belt at a speed velocity of 0.05 mm/s simulates plate convergence and results in the quasi-periodic nucleation of quasi-periodic stick-slip events (analog earthquakes) within the rice layer. The wedge responds elastically to these basal slip events, similar to crustal rebound during natural subduction megathrust earthquakes.