Continental margin shale tectonics: preliminary results from coupled fluid-mechanical models of large-scale delta instability
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract: We investigate the evolution of rifted continental margin shale tectonics using 2D finite-element models that couple sediment deformation to compaction-driven Darcy fluid flow via the effective stress. Fluid overpressures are generated in the models by a combination of mechanical compaction (grain rearrangement) and viscous compaction (grain dissolution and local reprecipitation), and lead to failure and flow of visco-plastic Bingham shale. Model results indicate that pore fluid pressures must be 90–95% of the lithostatic pressure to cause shale failure and delta destabilization. Mechanical compaction alone is insufficient to generate fluid overpressures required for failure in the models and viscous compaction is the primary source. The numerical models include delta progradation, lateral lithology variation, and flexural isostatic compensation. Seaward shale flow and associated overburden deformation results in the formation of landward regional and counter-regional fault-bounded extensional basins, a transitional domain of thickened and folded shale beneath the continental slope, and a seaward fold and thrust belt at the delta toe. The structural styles generated by the preliminary numerical models are compatible with features observed in unstable Cenozoic deltas (e.g. the Niger Delta) and provide additional insight into the fundamental relationships between deltaic sedimentation, fluid pressure generation, and margin-scale gravity spreading.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".