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 weakening and earthquake instability by powder lubrication

Nature volume 467, pages 452–455 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Earthquake instability has long been attributed to fault weakening during accelerated slip1, and a central question of earthquake physics is identifying the mechanisms that control this weakening2. Even with much experimental effort2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, the weakening mechanisms have remained enigmatic. Here we present evidence for dynamic weakening of experimental faults that are sheared at velocities approaching earthquake slip rates. The experimental faults, which were made of room-dry, solid granite blocks, quickly wore to form a fine-grain rock powder known as gouge. At modest slip velocities of 10–60 mm s−1, this newly formed gouge organized itself into a thin deforming layer that reduced the fault’s strength by a factor of 2–3. After slip, the gouge rapidly ‘aged’ and the fault regained its strength in a matter of hours to days. Therefore, only newly formed gouge can weaken the experimental faults. Dynamic gouge formation is expected to be a common and effective mechanism of earthquake instability in the brittle crust as (1) gouge always forms during fault slip5,10,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20; (2) fault-gouge behaves similarly to industrial powder lubricants21; (3) dynamic gouge formation explains various significant earthquake properties; and (4) gouge lubricant can form for a wide range of fault configurations, compositions and temperatures15.

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: Experimental friction-velocity relations in Sierra White granite samples.
Figure 2: Gouge formation during the experiments.
Figure 3: Friction as function of the temperature measured by thermocouple located 3 mm from the sliding surface.
Figure 4: Friction measurements in slide-hold-slide experiments.
Figure 5: Proposed model for fault weakening as it accelerates from rest to about 1 m s−1.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Jordan, T. (committee chair) Living on an Active Earth: Perspectives on Earthquake Science (National Research Council, 2003)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Dieterich, J. H. Modeling of rock friction. 1. Experimental results and constitutive equations. J. Geophys. Res. 84, 161–162,–168 (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dieterich, J. H. Constitutive properties of faults with simulated gouge. Geophys. Monogr. 24, 103–120 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hirose, T. & Shimamoto, T. Slip-weakening distance of faults during frictional melting as inferred from experimental and natural pseudotachylytes. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 95, 1666–1673 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Mizoguchi, K., Hirose, T., Shimamoto, T. & Fukuyama, E. Moisture-related weakening and strengthening of a fault activated at seismic slip rates. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33 L16319 10.1029/2006GL026980 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ruina, A. Slip instability and state variable friction laws. J. Geophys. Res. 88, 19359–19370 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. 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 

  8. Beeler, N. M. & Tullis, T. E. Self-healing slip pulses in dynamic rupture models due to velocity dependent strength. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 86, 1130–1148 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

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

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Marone, C. J. Earthquake science—faults greased at high speed. Nature 427, 405–406 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Mair, K. & Marone, C. J. Friction of simulated fault gouge for a wide range of velocities and normal stresses. J. Geophys. Res. 104, 28899–28914 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Yund, R. A., Blanpied, M. L., Tullis, T. E. & Weeks, J. D. Amorphous material in high strain experimental fault gouges. J. Geophys. Res. 95, 15589–15602 (1990)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Scholz, C. H. The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting 2nd edn (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Lockner, D. A. et al. Geometry of the Nojima Fault at Nojima-Hirabayashi, Japan. I. A simple damage structure inferred from borehole core permeability. Pure Appl. Geophys. 166, 1649–1667 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Ben-Zion, Y. & Sammis, C. G. Characterization of fault zones. Pure Appl. Geophys. 160, 677–715 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Wilson, B., Dewers, T., Reches, Z. & Brune, J. Particle size and energetics of gouge from earthquake rupture zones. Nature 434, 749–752 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Brodsky, E. E. & Kanamori, H. Elastohydrodynamic lubrication of faults. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 16,357–16,374 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Byerlee, J. D. Frictional characteristics of granite under high confining pressure. J. Geophys. Res. 72, 3639–3648 (1967)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Beeler, N. M. & Tullis, T. E. Implications of Coulomb plasticity for the velocity dependence of experimental faults. Pure Appl. Geophys. 144, 251–276 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Wang, W. B. & Scholz, C. H. Wear processes during frictional sliding of rock—a theoretical and experimental study. J. Geophys. Res. 99, 6789–6799 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Wornyoh, E. Y. A., Jasti, V. K. & Higgs, C. F. A review of dry particulate lubrication: powder and granular materials. J. Tribol. 129, 438–449 (2007)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Binggeli, M. & Mate, C. M. Influence of water-vapor on nanotribology studied by friction force microscopy. J. Vacuum Sci. Technol. B 13, 1312–1315 (1995)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Muhuri, S. K., Dewers, T. A., Scott, T. E. & Reches, Z. Interseismic fault strengthening and earthquake-slip instability: friction or cohesion? Geology 31, 881–884 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Rabinowicz, E. The relation between friction and wear for boundary-lubricated surfaces. Proc. Phys. Soc. Lond. B 68, 603–608 (1955)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Godet, M. The 3rd-body approach—a mechanical view of wear. Wear 100, 437–452 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Higgs, C. F., Heshmat, C. A. & Heshmat, H. S. Comparative evaluation of MoS2 and WS2 as powder lubricants in high speed, multi-pad journal bearings. J. Tribol. 121, 625–630 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Heshmat, H. The quasi-hydrodynamic mechanism of powder lubrication. 3. On theory and rheology of triboparticulates. J. Tribol. 38, 269–276 (1995)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Ide, S. & Takeo, M. Determination of constitutive relations of fault slip based on seismic wave analysis. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 27379–27391 (1997)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Paterson, M. S. & Wong, T. F. Experimental Rock Deformation—The Brittle Field 347 (Springer, 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Hiratsuka, K. & Muramoto, K. Role of wear particles in severe–mild wear transition. Wear 259, 467–476 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Hird, J. R. & Field, J. E. A wear mechanism map for the diamond polishing process. Wear 258, 18–25 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank J. Young, who built our instrument, as well as E. Eshkol, M. Hamilton, D. Moore, A. Madden, J. Chang and S. Busetti. Comments and reviews by J. Andrews, N. Beeler, C. Sammis, T.-f. Wong and J. Fineberg improved the manuscript. This study is supported by the National Science Foundation, Geosciences, Equipment and Facilities (grant number 0732715).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, 100 East Boyd Street, Norman, Oklahoma, USA

    Ze’ev Reches

  2. US Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, 94025, California, USA

    David A. Lockner

Authors
  1. Ze’ev Reches
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David A. Lockner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors made equal contributions to this study.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ze’ev Reches or David A. Lockner.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Information comprising Experimental set- up, Steady-state friction and Wear calculation. Also included are and Supplementary Figures 1-6 with legends and an additional reference. (PDF 724 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Reches, Z., Lockner, D. Fault weakening and earthquake instability by powder lubrication. Nature 467, 452–455 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09348

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09348

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