Pressure solution lithification as a mechanism for the stick‐slip behavior of faults

Abstract

Many major faults, including a large fraction of the San Andreas, appear to be virtually quiescent between great earthquakes. The locked sections of the San Andreas near San Francisco and Los Angeles have little or no seismic activity on the primary fault trace, although secondary faults may be active. Stick‐slip behavior on a fault can be explained in terms of a static coefficient of friction, which is larger than the dynamic or sliding coefficient. In this paper we propose a modification of the friction hypothesis in which chemical lithification (cementation) occurs on the fault between earthquakes. As the stress on the fault increases it becomes large enough to break the cemented bonds between particles causing slip on the fault. We treat this problem quantitatively, assuming that pressure solution is responsible for the cementation. An advantage of this model is that the hydrostatic pressure approaches the lithostatic pressure during cementation so that low fault strengths are predicted.

Postseismic Fault Healing on the Rupture Zone of the 1999 M 7.1 Hector Mine, California, Earthquake

“…Fault healing may be affected by time-dependent frictional strengthening (Vidale et al, 1994;Marone et al, 1995;Marone, 1998;Schaff et al, 1998), fluid variations or changes in the state of stress (Palmer et al, 1995;Dodge and Beroza, 1997;Blanpied et al, 1998), cementation, recrystallization, pressure solution, crack sealing, and grain contact welding (Hickman and Evans, 1992;Sleep and Blanpied, 1992;Olsen et al, 1998), as well as the fault-normal compaction of the rupture zone (Massonnet et al, 1996). Little chemical healing is expected from mineralogical lithification of gouge materials like quartz arenites at depths less than 3 km, although the interseismic healing due to chemical process may have a significant effect over longer time periods at seismogenic depth (Angevine et al, 1982;Angevine and Turcotte, 1983). However, the "crack dilatancy" mechanisms associated with the earthquake we discussed previously are likely to operate for fault healing with the time observed at shallow depth in our experiments using near-surface explosions, even if other processes are active too.…”

“…Rupture models that involve variations in fault-zone fluid pressure over the earthquake cycle have been proposed (Sibson, 1977;Blanpied et al, 1992Blanpied et al, , 1998Olsen et al, 1998). Structural fault variations (e.g., Das and Aki, 1977;Rice, 1980) and rheological fault variations (e.g., Angevine et al, 1982;Walder and Nur, 1984;Peltzer et al, 1998) as well as variations in strength and stress (e.g., Wesson and Ellsworth, 1973;Vidale et al, 1994;Beroza et al, 1995) may affect the earthquake rupture. Thus, knowledge of spatial and temporal variations in fault physical properties will help predict the behavior of future earthquakes.…”

Experimental calcite dissolution under stress: Evolution of grain contact microstructure during pressure solution creep

“…Pressure solution creep is a chemical deformation mechanism occurring in the presence of a reactive fluid, and is responsible for slow and irreversible compaction of sediments. Intergranular pressure solution creep is an important process of porosity loss in sedimentary basins [Rutter, 1983;Tada and Siever, 1989] or of healing of active faults during the interseismic period [Ramsay, 1980;Angevine et al, 1982;Gratier, 1987;Renard et al, 2000]. An other possible irreversible deformation mechanism during compaction of sediments is subcritical crack growth [Atkinson, 1982;Liteanu and Spiers, 2009].…”

Intergranular Pressure Solution in Nacl: Grain-To-Grain Contact Experiments under the Optical Microscope

“…IPS is also recognized as one of the main factors controlling the geological evolution of porosity and permeability, and hence capacity and productivity, of (potential) hydrocarbon reservoirs (Pittman, 1979;Hutcheon‚ 1983;Carrozzi and Von Bergen‚ 1987), as well as a possible mechanism controlling fault creep, fault gouge compaction and fault strength recovery (Rutter and Mainprice, 1978;Angevine et al, 1982;Lehner and Bataille, 1984;Sleep and Blanpied, 1992;Sleep, 1995). In addition, Urai et al (1986) and Spiers et al (1989Spiers et al ( , 1990 have shown that IPS can be an important deformation mechanism in halite rock at low strain rates, which has important implications for the design of waste repositories in rock salt formations, and for understanding salt tectonics.…”