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Earthquake nucleation in weak subducted carbonates

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 717–722 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ocean-floor carbonate- and clay-rich sediments form major inputs to subduction zones, especially at low-latitude convergent plate margins. Therefore, knowledge of their frictional behaviour is fundamental for understanding plate-boundary earthquakes. Here we report results of mechanical tests performed on simulated fault gouges prepared from ocean-floor carbonates and clays, cored during IODP drilling offshore Costa Rica. Clay-rich gouges show internal friction coefficients (that is, the slope of linearized shear stress versus normal stress data) of μint = 0.44 − 0.56, irrespective of temperature and pore-fluid pressure (Pf). By contrast, μint for the carbonate gouge strongly depends on temperature and pore-fluid pressure, with μint decreasing dramatically from 0.84 at room temperature and Pf = 20 MPa to 0.27 at T = 140 °C and Pf = 120 MPa. This effect provides a fundamental mechanism of shear localization and earthquake generation in subduction zones, and makes carbonates likely nucleation sites for plate-boundary earthquakes. Our results imply that rupture nucleation is prompted by a combination of temperature-controlled frictional instability and temperature- and pore-pressure-dependent weakening of calcareous fault gouges.

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Figure 1: Representative records of velocity-stepping experiments.
Figure 2: Mechanical data of hemipelagic silty clay (upper panels) and calcareous ooze (lower panels), deformed under varying experimental conditions.
Figure 3: Backscattered electron images of experimentally deformed calcareous ooze gouge.
Figure 4: Schematic sections across the forearc wedge of the Central American Subduction Zone offshore Costa Rica.

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Acknowledgements

This research used data and samples provided by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). M.S. thanks the Shipboard Parties of IODP Expeditions 334 and 344 for their great colleagueship and their commitment aboard DV JOIDES Resolution. R.M.K. greatly appreciated experimental help by M. Sawai, quantitative analysis of diffractograms by R. Kuehn and insight into unpublished data from D. Charpentier. Financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through grant STI298/7-1,2 to M.S. and J.H.B. is kindly acknowledged. A.R.N. is supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) through a VIDI grant (no. 854.12.011) and by the ERC starting grant SEISMIC (no. 335915).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Geodynamics, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Wischhofstr. 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany

    Robert M. Kurzawski, Michael Stipp & Jan H. Behrmann

  2. Institute of Geosciences, University of Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10, 24118 Kiel, Germany

    Robert M. Kurzawski

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, HPT Laboratory, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3484 CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    André R. Niemeijer & Christopher J. Spiers

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R.M.K. conducted experiments and data analysis in collaboration with A.R.N. M.S. initiated the project. All authors contributed to discussion and writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Robert M. Kurzawski.

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Kurzawski, R., Stipp, M., Niemeijer, A. et al. Earthquake nucleation in weak subducted carbonates. Nature Geosci 9, 717–722 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2774

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