Dehydration-driven stress transfer triggers intermediate-depth earthquakes

Ferrand, Thomas P.; Hilairet, Nadège; Incel, Sarah; Deldicque, Damien; Labrousse, Loïc; Gasc, Julien; Renner, Joerg; Wang, Yanbin; Green II, Harry W.; Schubnel, Alexandre

doi:10.1038/ncomms15247

Dehydration-driven stress transfer triggers intermediate-depth earthquakes

Journal Article · Mon May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15247· OSTI ID:1424032

^[1]; Hilairet, Nadège ^[2]; Incel, Sarah ^[3]; Deldicque, Damien ^[3]; Labrousse, Loïc ^[4]; Gasc, Julien ^[3]; Renner, Joerg ^[5]; ^[6]; Green II, Harry W. ^[7]; Schubnel, Alexandre ^[3]

PSL Research Univ., Paris (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris (France). Lab. de Geologie; Laboratoire de Geologie, CNRS UMR 8538, Ecole Normale Superieure, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
Univ. Lille, Lille (France). Unite Materiaux et Transformations
PSL Research Univ., Paris (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris (France). Lab. de Geologie
Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (France). Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris
Ruhr Univ., Bochum (Germany). Inst. fur Geologie, Mineralogie und Geophysik
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS)
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth Science

Intermediate-depth earthquakes (30–300 km) have been extensively documented within subducting oceanic slabs, but their mechanics remains enigmatic. Here in this paper we decipher the mechanism of these earthquakes by performing deformation experiments on dehydrating serpentinized peridotites (synthetic antigorite-olivine aggregates, minerals representative of subduction zones lithologies) at upper mantle conditions. At a pressure of 1.1 gigapascals, dehydration of deforming samples containing only 5 vol% of antigorite suffices to trigger acoustic emissions, a laboratory-scale analogue of earthquakes. At 3.5 gigapascals, acoustic emissions are recorded from samples with up to 50 vol% of antigorite. Experimentally produced faults, observed post-mortem, are sealed by fluid-bearing micro-pseudotachylytes. Microstructural observations demonstrate that antigorite dehydration triggered dynamic shear failure of the olivine load-bearing network. These laboratory analogues of intermediatedepth earthquakes demonstrate that little dehydration is required to trigger embrittlement. We propose an alternative model to dehydration-embrittlement in which dehydration-driven stress transfer, rather than fluid overpressure, causes embrittlement.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); National Science Foundation (NSF); L'Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-94ER14466; AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1424032

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1390885

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 8; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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