Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Fault lubrication during earthquakes

Nature volume 471, pages 494–498 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The determination of rock friction at seismic slip rates (about 1 m s−1) is of paramount importance in earthquake mechanics, as fault friction controls the stress drop, the mechanical work and the frictional heat generated during slip1. Given the difficulty in determining friction by seismological methods1, elucidating constraints are derived from experimental studies2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Here we review a large set of published and unpublished experiments (∼300) performed in rotary shear apparatus at slip rates of 0.1–2.6 m s−1. The experiments indicate a significant decrease in friction (of up to one order of magnitude), which we term fault lubrication, both for cohesive (silicate-built4,5,6, quartz-built3 and carbonate-built7,8) rocks and non-cohesive rocks (clay-rich9, anhydrite, gypsum and dolomite10 gouges) typical of crustal seismogenic sources. The available mechanical work and the associated temperature rise in the slipping zone trigger11,12 a number of physicochemical processes (gelification, decarbonation and dehydration reactions, melting and so on) whose products are responsible for fault lubrication. The similarity between (1) experimental and natural fault products and (2) mechanical work measures resulting from these laboratory experiments and seismological estimates13,14 suggests that it is reasonable to extrapolate experimental data to conditions typical of earthquake nucleation depths (7–15 km). It seems that faults are lubricated during earthquakes, irrespective of the fault rock composition and of the specific weakening mechanism involved.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Friction coefficient versus normalized slip.
Figure 2: The thermal slip distance, Dth, versus normal stress from experiments performed with V = 1–1.6 m s−1.
Figure 3: Steady-state friction coefficient versus slip rate.
Figure 4: Steady-state friction coefficient versus power density.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Scholz, C. H. The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Goldsby, D. L. & Tullis, T. E. Low frictional strength of quartz rocks at subseismic slip rates. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29, 1844 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Di Toro, G., Goldsby, D. L. & Tullis, T. E. Friction falls towards zero in quartz rock as slip velocity approaches seismic rates. Nature 427, 436–439 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Di Toro, G. & Hirose, T. Nielsen, S. Pennacchioni, G. & Shimamoto, T. Natural and experimental evidence of melt lubrication of faults during earthquakes. Science 311, 647–649 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hirose, T. & Shimamoto, T. Growth of molten zone as a mechanism of slip weakening of simulated faults in gabbro during frictional melting. J. Geophys. Res. 110, B05202 (2005)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Nielsen, S., Di Toro, G., Hirose, T. & Shimamoto, T. Frictional melt and seismic slip. J. Geophys. Res. 113, B01308 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Han, R., Shimamoto, T., Hirose, T., Ree, J.-H. & Ando, J. Ultralow friction of carbonate faults caused by thermal decomposition. Science 316, 878–881 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Han, R., Hirose, T. & Shimamoto, T. Strong velocity weakening and powder lubrication of simulated carbonate faults at seismic slip rates. J. Geophys. Res. 115, B03412 (2010)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Mizoguchi, K., Hirose, T., Shimamoto, T. & Fukuyama, E. High-velocity frictional behavior and microstructure evolution of fault gouge obtained from Nojima fault, southwest Japan. Tectonophysics 471, 285–296 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. De Paola, N. et al. Fault lubrication and earthquake propagation in thermally unstable rocks. Geology 39, 35–38 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fox, P. G. Mechanically initiated chemical reactions in solids. J. Mater. Sci. 10, 340–360 (1975)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Fisher, T. E. Tribochemistry. Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 18, 303–323 (1988)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Cocco, M. & Tinti, E. Scale dependence in the dynamics of earthquake propagation: evidence from seismological and geological observations. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 273, 123–131 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Rice, J. R. Heating and weakening of faults during earthquake slip. J. Geophys. Res. 111, B05311 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Byerlee, J. D. Friction of rocks. Pure Appl. Geophys. 116, 615–626 (1978)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Brace, W. F. & Byerlee, J. D. Stick slip as a mechanism for earthquakes. Science 168, 990–992 (1966)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Scholz, C. H. Earthquakes and friction laws. Nature 391, 37–42 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Marone, C. Laboratory-derived friction laws and their application to seismic faulting. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 26, 643–696 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Dieterich, J. H. Modeling of rock friction 1. Experimental results and constitutive equations. J. Geophys. Res. 84, 2161–2168 (1979)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Heaton, T. H. Evidence for and implications of self healing pulses of slip in earthquake rupture. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 64, 1–20 (1990)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Hirono, T. et al. A chemical kinetic approach to estimate dynamic shear stress during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L19308 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Sibson, R. H. Generation of pseudotachylyte by ancient seismic faulting. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 43, 775–794 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Di Toro, G., Hirose, T., Nielsen, S. & Shimamoto, T. in Radiated Energy and the Physics of Faulting (eds Abercrombie, R., McGarr, A., Di Toro, G. & Kanamori, H. ) 121–134 (Geophys. Monogr. Ser. 170, American Geophysical Union, 2006)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  24. Heinicke, G. Tribochemistry (Carl-Hanser, 1984)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Hsu, S. M., Zhang, J. & Yin, Z. The nature and origin of tribochemistry. Tribol. Lett. 13, 131–139 (2002)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Steinike, U. & Tkácˇová, K. Mechanochemistry of solids—real structure and reactivity. J. Mater. Synth. Process. 8, 197–203 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Balázˇ, P. Mechanochemistry in Nanoscience and Minerals Engineering (Springer, 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Beeler, N. M., Tullis, T. E. & Goldsby, D. L. Constitutive relationships and physical basis of fault strength due to flash heating. J. Geophys. Res. 113, B01401 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Reches, Z. & Lockner, D. A. Fault weakening and earthquake instability by powder lubrication. Nature 467, 452–455 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Noda, H., Dunham, E. M. & Rice, J. R. Earthquake ruptures with thermal weakening and the operation of major faults at low overall stress levels. J. Geophys. Res. 114, B07302 (2009)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Ma, K. F. et al. Slip zone and energetics of a large earthquake from the Taiwan Chelungpu-fault Drilling Project (TCDP). Nature 444, 473–476 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Brantut, N., Schubnel, A., Rouzaud, J.-N., Brunet, F. & Shimamoto, T. High-velocity frictional properties of a clay bearing fault gouge and implications for earthquake mechanics. J. Geophys. Res. 113, B10401 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. Yuan, F. & Prakash, V. Use of a modified torsional Kolsky bar to study frictional slip resistance in rock-analog materials at coseismic slip rates. Int. J. Solids Struct. 45, 4247–4263 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Carslaw, H. S. & Jaeger, J. C. Conduction of Heat in Solids 2nd edn, 76 (Clarendon, 1959)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Mizoguchi, K., Hirose, T., Shimamoto, T. & Fukuyama, E. Reconstruction of seismic faulting by high-velocity friction experiments: an example of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L01308 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  36. Shimamoto, T. & Tsutsumi, A. A new rotary-shear high-speed frictional testing machine: its basic design and scope of research [in Japanese with English abstract]. J. Tecton. Res. Group Jpn 39, 65–78 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

G.D.T. thanks T. Tullis and D. Goldsby for introducing him to this topic. G.D.T. was supported by a Progetti di Eccellenza Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo and by European Research Council Starting Grant Project 205175.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università di Padova, Padova 35131, Italy

    G. Di Toro & F. Ferri

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma 00143, Italy

    G. Di Toro, S. Nielsen & M. Cocco

  3. Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 305-350, South Korea

    R. Han

  4. Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, JAMSTEC, Kochi 783-8502, Japan

    T. Hirose

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

    N. De Paola

  6. Civil Engineering Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Chiba 270-1194, Japan

    K. Mizoguchi

  7. Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100029, China

    T. Shimamoto

Authors
  1. G. Di Toro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. Han
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. T. Hirose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. N. De Paola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. S. Nielsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. K. Mizoguchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. F. Ferri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. M. Cocco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. T. Shimamoto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

G.D.T. wrote the paper. S.N. wrote the Methods. Original and unpublished experimental work reported in the paper: N.D.P., R.H., F.F., G.D.T., T.H. and K.M. Concept development: G.D.T., R.H., S.N., M.C., N.D.P., T.H. and T.S.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Di Toro.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

The file contains Supplementary Sections 1-5, comprising Supplementary Text, Supplementary Figures with legends, Supplementary Tables and additional references. (PDF 1728 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Di Toro, G., Han, R., Hirose, T. et al. Fault lubrication during earthquakes. Nature 471, 494–498 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09838

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09838

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing