Curvatures of Deformed Geological Layers viewed from the Thin Plate Theory.

@inproceedings{Royer2GM2011,
 abstract = { Von Karman’s theory is used to describe the shape, strains and stresses of thin plates, non Euclidian thin shells or surfaces. It relates the bending (or flexural slip) and stretching (or pure shearing) energies to the physical properties of the materials such as the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, and to the geometrical shape parameters such as the Gaussian and the mean curvatures, given a set of boundary conditions. It is commonly admitted that usual elastic sedimentary layers have generally a null or very small Gaussian curvature as they result from the deformation of an horizontal layer formed in the depositional space (assuming no erosion).
This paper presents theoretical results that relate the curvatures of the top or bottom surfaces of a geological structures which can be assumed to be equivalent to a thin plate. Bending and stretching energy terms are used as structural attributes to predict fracturing or the deformation style. They also can be used to better understand 2D curvature maps or 3D curvature cubes calculated in structural analysis work-flow in structural geology and in some seismic analysis techniques. },
 author = { Royer, Jean-Jacques },
 booktitle = { Proc. 31st Gocad Meeting, Nancy },
 title = { Curvatures of Deformed Geological Layers viewed from the Thin Plate Theory. },
 year = { 2011 }
}