The record of physical processes that occur during seismic slip events is well preserved in fault rocks from the active Nojima fault in Japan. The fault rocks formed at about 3 km depth, and comprise thin alternating layers of very fine gouge and pseudotachylyte derived from granite. Each layer is thinner than a few millimeters, and corresponds to one seismic slip event. The very thin slip zone width suggests that some mechanisms of slip weakening operated, and our studies of the fault rocks suggest that fluidization and melting of gouge were particularly important. Fluidized and nonfluidized gouges were distinguished using the detection probability of fragmented counterparts method. It is known from granular material science that the phase transition from a grain friction regime to fluidization of granular materials can occur only by a very small decrease in volume fraction of solid grains. Once fluidization occurs, the frictional resistance decreases abruptly to nearly zero even before thermal pressurization reaches its extreme state. When fault gouge is melted, frictional resistance is governed by the viscosity of melt which depends mainly on temperature, chemical composition, H2O concentration and the volume fraction of unmelted grains. For each pseudotachylyte layer, we estimated the temperature of melt using various temperature indices, and measured volume fraction of unmelted grains. We synthesized these data to reconstruct the change in viscosity during seismic slip events. The melt viscosity is very high (107–9 Pas) during initial melting due to the combined effect of low temperature (750°–800°C) and large volume fraction of solid grains. Thus seismic slip is inevitably restrained instantaneously. Once this mechanical barrier is overcome, the viscosity reduces continuously and dramatically as slip increases. At 1000°C, the viscosity reduces to 104Pas and eventually to 10Pas at 1280°C. Thus stress drops almost completely and rupturing tends to run away.

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Many craters and thick regoliths of the moon imply that it has experienced heavy meteorite bombardments. Although the existence of a high-pressure polymorph is a stark evidence for a dynamic event, few high-pressure polymorphs are found in a lunar sample. a-PbO 2 -type silica (seifertite) is an ultrahigh-pressure polymorph of silica, and is found only in a heavily shocked Martian meteorite. Here we show evidence for seifertite in a shocked lunar meteorite, Northwest Africa 4734. Cristobalite transforms to seifertite by high-pressure and -temperature condition induced by a dynamic event. Considering radio-isotopic ages determined previously, the dynamic event formed seifertite on the moon, accompanying the complete resetting of radio-isotopic ages, is B2.7 Ga ago. Our finding allows us to infer that such intense planetary collisions occurred on the moon until at least B2.7 Ga ago.

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