The Hans Ramberg Tectonic Laboratory (HRTL): the lab where miniatures mimic giants

The Hans Ramberg Tectonic Laboratory is part of the largest concentration of geoscience expertise in Scandinavia at the Department of Earth Sciences of Uppsala University in Sweden. The laboratory is part of the Mineralogy, Petrology and Tectonics program.

The Hans Ramberg Tectonic Laboratory is one of the oldest tectonic modelling laboratories in the world, where tectonic processes and geologic structures are simulated in scaled mechanical models. The aim of this laboratory is to study the machinery of this lively planet (i.e. "to study the architecture of the lithosphere and rock deformation processes on any scale in 4D").

By replacing real rocks with weak analogue materials we model on scales of centimeters and days processes that occur in nature on scales of hundreds of kilometers over tens of millions of years. This is performed by integrating remote, geophysical and field data and the results are modelled by both backward and forward analytical and mechanical models. The laboratory was established in in the middle of 60-ies by the late Hans Ramberg (see photo below) and is identified as an entity within Uppsala University.

Evaluating the research activities at the Hans Ramberg Tectonic Laboratory, an international committee selected by the Swedish Research Council described HRTL as a "show piece of Swedish Science"! The committee further underlined "There is no other laboratory of its type in the world that has so consistently emphasized the importance of gravity in the development of geological structures".

An international panel (2011) assessed HRTL as:
“They are amongst the world leading laboratories in experimental structural geology”.

The Hans Ramberg Tectonic laboratory is well equipped with two large motorized pure and simple shear boxes for rock-analogue experiments with any loading geometry at normal gravity, and, unique in Europe, two high capacity centrifuges allowing tectonic experiments at high "g". The lab is also equipped with a state-of-the-art 3D laser Scanner, which captures objects in full color with multi-laser precision. This high-resolution scanner enables monitoring and analyzing progressive deformation during model runs.

Professor Hans Ramberg (1917-1998).

Furthermore, we have a DHR1 high-tech rheometer for precise measurement of viscosity and elasticity of materials under different temperature and stress conditions. The laboratory is also equipped with two simple-shear boxes and instruments for measuring material properties (e.g., fractional properties of granular materials). HRTL is one of the tectonic laboratories that is at the leading edge with its sophisticated analogue models performed by a team of researchers with an international reputation.

A block diagram representing part of our research scope.

The laboratory hosts an almost continuous succession of visiting researchers from all over the world to use our often-unique facilities and benefit from our expertise. The laboratory has been used to model a wide range of tectonic/structural settings. Our world-class sand-box models performed under normal gravity simulate large scale tectonics, distribution of seismicity of fold-thrust belts, entrainment of denser blocks by salt diapirs, fault refraction and the effect of multi-detachments in the evolution of fold-thrust belts.

To get access to the HRTL please contact the director of the lab, Professor Hemin Koyi for rates and conditions.