Or M. Bialik on Nostr: Before computer models, tectonics people still wanted to #model their observations. ...

Before computer models, tectonics people still wanted to #model their observations. Their solution is to make layer cakes (out of materials with known viscosity like clay, wax, and later play-doh) and spin them really, really fast.
The idea was to scale up #Earth processes by using higher gravity and lower viscosity and then scale it all back up.

https://paleoarchive.com/literature/Ramberg1963-ExperimentalStudyGravityTectonicsCentrifugedModels.pdf