Evolution of nonperiodic forms in geological folds

An elastic layer resting on a visco-elastic (Maxwell) foundation is used to model the initiation and subsequent development of a geological fold. This study focuses on the effect of nonlinear terms, of both geometric and material origin, in the formulation of the governing differential equation. The result, during the initial elastic phase of deformation, is to admit the infinite variety of shapes familiar to the field of localized buckling. Their continued effect during the evolutionary phase allows the development of nonperiodic forms hitherto ignored by linear stability analyses. Numerical results are presented for two visco-elastic models subjected to loading conditions of constant end displacement and constant rate of end displacement.