The effect of mineral bond strength and adsorbed water on fault gouge frictional strength

Morrow, C. A.; Moore, Diane E.; Lockner, D. A.

doi:10.1029/1999gl008401

Cited by 345 publications

(272 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(14 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

240

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Saffer and Marone, 2003] For illite shale the coefficient of sliding friction ranges from 0.41 -0.63 over the range of normal stresses. These values are consistent with previous work on clays and clay shales [Logan and Rauenzahn, 1987;Morrow et al, 1982;Morrow et al, 1992;Morrow et al, 2000]. Illite shale has nearly the same failure envelope as quartz and each exhibits a constant angle of internal friction over this range of normal stresses ( fig.…”

Section: Frictional Strength Of Illite Shale Smectite and Quartz-smsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…The frictional strength of pure smectite has been shown to decrease with saturation, by as much as a factor of 2 [Morrow et al, 1992[Morrow et al, , 2000. In contrast, Morrow et al [1992] showed that the coefficient of sliding friction for illite shale is not appreciably affected by saturation, consistent with the fact that illite is not a hydrous clay mineral.…”

Section: Frictional Behavior Of Illite Shale Smectite and Quartz-smmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…In contrast, Morrow et al [1992] showed that the coefficient of sliding friction for illite shale is not appreciably affected by saturation, consistent with the fact that illite is not a hydrous clay mineral. For both smectite and illite the effects of saturation on constitutive parameters, including frictional velocity dependence, are not well characterized, although Morrow et al [1992Morrow et al [ , 2000 showed that illite shale exhibits velocity-strengthening behavior when saturated, albeit under an extremely limited set of experimental conditions. These observations suggest that saturation state does not affect illite frictional properties significantly, although additional experiments are clearly needed.…”

Section: Frictional Behavior Of Illite Shale Smectite and Quartz-smmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

12. Fault Friction and the Upper Transition from Seismic to Aseismic Faulting

Marone¹,

Saffer²

2007

The Seismogenic Zone of Subduction Thrust Faults

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper discusses the processes and mechanical factors that define the seismogenic zone and the updip transition from seismic to aseismic faulting. We review friction laws for granular and clay-rich fault zones and discuss them in the context of the mechanics of stick-slip and the requirements for instability. Seismogenic faulting is driven by the unstable release of stored elastic energy, and thus explanations of the upper stability transition must be couched in terms of fault-zone rheology. We summarize several observations that define the seismogenic zone and its upper boundary, including microseismicity, earthquake afterslip, and the spatial distribution of seismic moment release during large earthquakes. We focus on two hypotheses for the updip limit of seismic faulting. The clay mineral hypothesis posits that a thermally driven transition from a smectite to an illite structure produces a transition from aseismic to seismic behavior. The fault gouge lithification hypothesis posits that the stability transition reflects a threshold consolidation, or lithification, state and a switch from pervasive to localized shear. Existing laboratory data, which cover a limited range of conditions, indicate that the smectite-illite transformation results in an increase in friction but not a transition from stable to unstable behavior. It appears that other depth-and temperature-dependent processes may play an important role in altering the frictional properties of subduction faults and establishing the updip seismic limit.

show abstract

Section: Frictional Strength Of Illite Shale Smectite and Quartz-smsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Frictional Behavior Of Illite Shale Smectite and Quartz-smmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Frictional Behavior Of Illite Shale Smectite and Quartz-smmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

12. Fault Friction and the Upper Transition from Seismic to Aseismic Faulting

Marone¹,

Saffer²

2007

The Seismogenic Zone of Subduction Thrust Faults

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Strangely, XRD analysis shows that this sample is composed of only $35% phyllosilicates, while the amounts of zeolite (15%) and iron oxides (e.g., hematite, 7%) could be significant. Studies investigating the frictional strength of zeolites are rare; however, the friction of the zeolite species laumontite and clinoptilolite was measured to be 0.66 to 0.80 under water-saturated conditions and thus would not be a source of weakness [Morrow and Byerlee, 1991;Morrow et al, 2000]. We are currently unaware of studies measuring the frictional behavior of iron oxides.…”

Section: Lithologic/mineralogic Controls On Observed Strength Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shear strength of sediments approaching subduction in the Nankai Trough, Japan as constraints on forearc mechanics

Ikari

Hüpers

Kopf

2013

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

[1] The mechanical behavior of the plate boundary fault zone is of paramount importance in subduction zones, because it controls megathrust earthquake nucleation and propagation as well as the structural style of the forearc. In the Nankai area along the NanTroSEIZE (Kumano) drilling transect offshore SW Japan, a heterogeneous sedimentary sequence overlying the oceanic crust enters the subduction zone. In order to predict how variations in lithology, and thus mechanical properties, affect the formation and evolution of the plate boundary fault, we conducted laboratory tests measuring the shear strengths of sediments approaching the trench covering each major lithological sedimentary unit. We observe that shear strength increases nonlinearly with depth, such that the (apparent) coefficient of friction decreases. In combination with a critical taper analysis, the results imply that the plate boundary position is located on the main frontal thrust. Further landward, the plate boundary is expected to step down into progressively lower stratigraphic units, assisted by moderately elevated pore pressures. As seismogenic depths are approached, the decollement may further step down to lower volcaniclastic or pelagic strata but this requires specific overpressure conditions. High-taper angle and elevated strengths in the toe region may be local features restricted to the Kumano transect.Components: 9,385 words, 7 figures.

show abstract

“…That explanation does not seem likely, at least for crustal faults, as measurements of pore pressure within Earth's crust generally indicate hydrostatic conditions [Townend and Zoback, 2000], even in the SAF itself [Zoback et al, 2010]. Other theories appeal to anomalously low frictional resistance, from either frictionally weak clayrich materials [Morrow et al, 2000;Carpenter et al, 2011] or weak fault zone fabrics [Collettini et al, 2009] at seismogenic depths. Weak materials occur within the creeping section of the SAF and appear to be the most likely explanation for its weakness, but that cannot explain the similarly low stresses on other seismogenic parts of the SAF.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additional shear resistance from fault roughness and stress levels on geometrically complex faults

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

[1] The majority of crustal faults host earthquakes when the ratio of average background shear stress b to effective normal stress eff is b / eff 0.6. In contrast, mature plate-boundary faults like the San Andreas Fault (SAF) operate at b / eff 0.2. Dynamic weakening, the dramatic reduction in frictional resistance at coseismic slip velocities that is commonly observed in laboratory experiments, provides a leading explanation for low stress levels on mature faults. Strongly velocity-weakening friction laws permit rupture propagation on flat faults above a critical stress level pulse / eff 0.25. Provided that dynamic weakening is not restricted to mature faults, the higher stress levels on most faults are puzzling. In this work, we present a self-consistent explanation for the relatively high stress levels on immature faults that is compatible with low coseismic frictional resistance, from dynamic weakening, for all faults. We appeal to differences in structural complexity with the premise that geometric irregularities introduce resistance to slip in addition to frictional resistance. This general idea is quantified for the special case of self-similar fractal roughness of the fault surface. Natural faults have roughness characterized by amplitude-to-wavelength ratios˛between 10 -3 and 10 -2 . Through a second-order boundary perturbation analysis of quasi-static frictionless sliding across a band-limited self-similar interface in an ideally elastic solid, we demonstrate that roughness induces an additional shear resistance to slip, or roughness drag, given by drag = 8 3˛2 G * / min , for G * = G/(1 -) with shear modulus G and Poisson's ratio , slip , and minimum roughness wavelength min . The influence of roughness drag on fault mechanics is verified through an extensive set of dynamic rupture simulations of earthquakes on strongly rate-weakening fractal faults with elastic-plastic off-fault response. The simulations suggest that fault rupture, in the form of self-healing slip pulses, becomes probable above a background stress level b pulse + drag . For the smoothest faults (˛ 10 -3 ), drag is negligible compared to frictional resistance, so that b pulse 0.25 eff . However, on rougher faults (˛ 10 -2 ), roughness drag can exceed frictional resistance. We expect that drag ultimately departs from the predicted scaling when roughness-induced stress perturbations activate pervasive off-fault inelastic deformation, such that background stress saturates at a limit ( b 0.6 eff ) determined by the finite strength of the off-fault material. We speculate that this strength, and not the much smaller dynamically weakened frictional strength, determines the stress levels at which the majority of faults operate.Citation: Fang, Z., and E. M. Dunham (2013), Additional shear resistance from fault roughness and stress levels on geometrically complex faults,

show abstract

The effect of mineral bond strength and adsorbed water on fault gouge frictional strength

Cited by 345 publications

References 14 publications

12. Fault Friction and the Upper Transition from Seismic to Aseismic Faulting

12. Fault Friction and the Upper Transition from Seismic to Aseismic Faulting

Shear strength of sediments approaching subduction in the Nankai Trough, Japan as constraints on forearc mechanics

Additional shear resistance from fault roughness and stress levels on geometrically complex faults

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About