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Abstract Establishing a constitutive law for fault friction is a crucial objective of earthquake science. However, the complex frictional behavior of natural and synthetic gouges in laboratory experiments eludes explanations. Here, we present a constitutive framework that elucidates the rate, state, and temperature dependence of fault friction under the relevant sliding velocities and temperatures of the brittle lithosphere during seismic cycles. The competition between healing mechanisms, such as viscoelastic collapse, pressure‐solution creep, and crack sealing, explains the low‐temperature stability transition from steady‐state velocity‐strengthening to velocity‐weakening as a function of slip‐rate and temperature. In addition, capturing the transition from cataclastic flow to semi‐brittle creep accounts for the stabilization of fault slip at elevated temperatures. We calibrate the model using extensive laboratory data on synthetic albite and granite gouge, and on natural samples from the Alpine Fault and the Mugi Mélange in the Shimanto accretionary complex in Japan. The constitutive model consistently explains the evolving frictional response of fault gouge from room temperature to 600°C for sliding velocities ranging from nanometers to millimeters per second. The frictional response of faults can be uniquely determined by the in situ lithology and the prevailing hydrothermal conditions.
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Fracture, Friction, and Permeability of Ice
Water ice Ih exhibits brittle behavior when rapidly loaded. Under tension, it fails via crack nucleation and propagation. Compressive failure is more complicated. Under low confinement, cracks slide and interact to form a frictional (Coulombic) fault. Under high confinement, frictional sliding is suppressed and adiabatic heating through crystallographic slip leads to the formation of a plastic fault. The coefficient of static friction increases with time under load, owing to creep of asperities in contact. The coefficient of kinetic (dynamic) friction, set by the ratio of asperity shear strength to hardness, increases with velocity at lower speeds and decreases at higher speeds as contacts melt through frictional heating. Microcracks, upon reaching a critical number density (which near the ductile-to-brittle transition is nearly constant above a certain strain rate), form a pathway for percolation. Additional work is needed on the effects of porosity and crack healing. ▪ An understanding of brittle failure is essential to better predict the integrity of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice covers and the tectonic evolution of the icy crusts of Enceladus, Europa, and other extraterrestrial satellites. ▪ Fundamental to the brittle failure of ice is the initiation and propagation of microcracks, frictional sliding across crack faces, and localization of strain through both crack interaction and adiabatic heating.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1947107
- PAR ID:
- 10334531
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0084-6597
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 323 to 343
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Localized frictional sliding on faults in the continental crust transitions at depth to distributed deformation in viscous shear zones. This brittle‐ductile transition (BDT), and/or the transition from velocity‐weakening (VW) to velocity‐strengthening (VS) friction, are controlled by the lithospheric thermal structure and composition. Here, we investigate these transitions, and their effect on the depth extent of earthquakes, using 2D antiplane shear simulations of a strike‐slip fault with rate‐and‐state friction. The off‐fault material is viscoelastic, with temperature‐dependent dislocation creep. We solve the heat equation for temperature, accounting for frictional and viscous shear heating that creates a thermal anomaly relative to the ambient geotherm which reduces viscosity and facilitates viscous flow. We explore several geotherms and effective normal stress distributions (by changing pore pressure), quantifying the thermal anomaly, seismic and aseismic slip, and the transition from frictional sliding to viscous flow. The thermal anomaly can reach several hundred degrees below the seismogenic zone in models with hydrostatic pressure but is smaller for higher pressure (and these high‐pressure models are most consistent with San Andreas Fault heat flow constraints). Shear heating raises the BDT, sometimes to where it limits rupture depth rather than the frictional VW‐to‐VS transition. Our thermomechanical modeling framework can be used to evaluate lithospheric rheology and thermal models through predictions of earthquake ruptures, postseismic and interseismic crustal deformation, heat flow, and the geological structures that reflect the complex deformation beneath faults.more » « less
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Abstract The frictional properties of faults control the initiation and propagation of earthquakes and the associated hazards. Although the ambient temperature and instantaneous slip velocity controls on friction in isobaric conditions are increasingly well understood, the role of normal stress on steady‐state and transient frictional behaviors remains elusive. The friction coefficient of rocks exhibits a strong dependence on normal stress at typical crustal depths. Furthermore, rapid changes in normal stress cause a direct effect on friction followed by an evolutionary response. Here, we derive a constitutive friction law that consistently explains the yield strength of rocks from atmospheric pressure to gigapascals while capturing the transient behavior following perturbations in normal stress. The model explains the frictional strength of a variety of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks and the slip‐dependent response upon normal stress steps of Westerly granite bare contact and synthetic gouges made of quartz and a mixture of quartz and smectite. The nonlinear normal stress dependence of the frictional resistance may originate from the distribution of asperities that control the real area of contact. The direct and transient effects may be important for induced seismicity by hydraulic fracturing or for naturally occurring normal stress perturbations within fault zones in the brittle crust.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-085507
