The deep roots of subduction megathrusts exhibit aseismic slow slip events, commonly accompanied by tectonic tremor. Observations from exhumed rocks suggest this region of the subduction interface is a shear zone with frictional lenses embedded in a viscous matrix. Here, we use numerical models to explore the transient slip characteristics of finite‐width frictional‐viscous megathrust shear zones. Our model utilizes an invariant, continuum‐based, regularized form of rate‐ and state‐dependent friction (RSF) and simulates earthquakes along spontaneously evolving faults embedded in a 2D heterogeneous continuum. The setup includes two elastic plates bounding a viscoelastoplastic shear zone (subduction interface melange) with inclusions (clasts) of varying distributions and viscosity contrasts with respect to the surrounding weaker matrix. The entire shear zone exhibits the same velocity‐weakening RSF parameters, but the lower viscosity matrix has the capacity to switch between RSF and viscous creep as a function of local stress state. Results demonstrate a mechanism in which stress heterogeneity in these shear zones both (a) sets the “speed limit” for earthquake ruptures that nucleate in clasts such that they propagate at slow velocities; and (b) permits the transmission of slow slip from clast to clast, allowing slow ruptures to propagate substantial distances over the model domain. For reasonable input parameters, modeled events have moment‐duration statistics, stress drops, and rupture propagation rates that overlap with some natural slow slip events. These results provide new insights into how geologic observations from ancient analogs of the slow slip source may scale up to match geophysical constraints on modern slow slip phenomena.

The deep roots of subduction megathrusts exhibit aseismic slow slip events, commonly accompanied by tectonic tremor. Observations from exhumed rocks suggest this region of the subduction interface is a shear zone with frictional lenses embedded in a viscous matrix. Here we use numerical models to explore the transient slip characteristics of finite-width frictional-viscous megathrust shear zones. Our model utilizes an invariant, continuum-based, regularized form of rate-and state-dependent friction (RSF) and simulates earthquakes along spontaneously evolving faults embedded in a 2D heterogeneous continuum. The setup includes two elastic plates bounding a viscoelastoplastic shear zone (subduction interface melange) with inclusions (clasts) of varying distributions and viscosity contrasts with respect to the surrounding weaker matrix. The entire shear zone exhibits the same velocity-weakening RSF parameters, but the lower viscosity matrix has the capacity to switch between RSF and viscous creep as a function of local stress state. Results show that for a range of matrix viscosities near the frictional-viscous transition, viscous damping and stress heterogeneity in these shear zones both 1) sets the 'speed limit' for earthquake ruptures that nucleate in clasts such that they propagate at slow velocities; and 2) permits the transmission of slow slip from clast to clast, allowing slow ruptures to propagate substantial distances over the model domain. For reasonable input parameters, modeled events have moment-duration statistics, stress drops, and rupture propagation rates that match natural slow slip events. These results provide new insights into how geologic observations from ancient analogs of the slow slip source may scale up to match geophysical constraints on modern slow slip phenomena.

<p>Episodic tremor and slow slip (ETS) is observed in several subduction zones down-dip of the locked megathrust, and may provide clues for preparatory processes before megathrust rupture. Exhumed rocks provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the sources of rheological heterogeneity on the subduction interface and their potential role in generating ETS-like behavior. We present data from two subduction interface shear zones representative of the down-dip extent of the megathrust: the Condrey Mountain Schist (CMS) in northern CA (greenschist to blueschist facies conditions) and the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU) on Syros Island, Greece (blueschist to eclogite facies). Both complexes highlight the propensity for fluid-mediated metamorphic reactions to produce strong rheological heterogeneities:</p><p>In the CMW, hydration reactions led to progressive serpentinization of peridotite bodies that were entrained from the overriding plate and underplated along with oceanic-affinity sediments. The margins of each peridotite-serpentinite lens show extreme strain localization accommodated by dislocation glide and minor pressure solution in antigorite, whereas lens interiors show evidence for more distributed, alternating, frictional-viscous deformation, with abundant crack-seal veins occupied by antigorite, brucite and oxides that are in some places also ductilely sheared. Deformation in the surrounding metasedimentary matrix was purely viscous.</p><p>In the CBU on Syros Island, dehydration reactions in MORB-affinity basalts, subducted and underplated with oceanic and continental-affinity sediments, led to progressive development of strong eclogitic lenses within a weaker blueschist and metasedimentary matrix. The eclogite lenses are commonly coarse-grained and massive and show brittle deformation in the form of dilational and shear fractures/veins filled with quartz, white mica, glaucophane and/or chlorite. Brittle deformation in the eclogites is coeval with ductile deformation in the surrounding blueschist and metasedimentary matrix, indicating concurrent frictional-viscous flow.</p><p>Although we cannot easily distinguish transient deformation processes in exhumed rocks, we can use the following three approaches to assess whether these heterogeneities could have generated deformation behaviors similar to deep ETS: 1) We measure displacements within, and dimensions of the heterogeneities in outcrop/map-scale to estimate the maximum possible seismic moment that would be released when the frictional heterogeneities slip;  2) We compare deformation mechanisms inferred from field and microstructural observations to their expected mechanical behavior from rock deformation experiments; and 3) We use seismo-thermo-mechanical modeling to examine expected slip velocities and moment-duration ratios for frictional-viscous shear zones that are scaled to observations from nature and the lab.  </p><p>All three approaches suggest that frictional-viscous heterogeneities of the types and length-scales we observe in the exhumed rock record are compatible with ETS as documented in modern subduction zones.</p>