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Ubiquitous weakening of faults due to thermal pressurization

Nature Geoscience volume 8, pages 875–879 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Laboratory simulations of earthquakes show that at high slip rates, faults can weaken significantly, aiding rupture1,2,3. Various mechanisms, such as thermal pressurization and flash heating, have been proposed to cause this weakening during laboratory experiments1,4,5,6, yet the processes that aid fault slip in nature remain unknown. Measurements of seismic radiation during an earthquake can be used to estimate the frictional work associated with fault weakening, known as an event’s fracture energy7,8,9. Here we compile new and existing8,9 measurements of fracture energy for earthquakes globally that vary in size from borehole microseismicity to great earthquakes. We observe a distinct transition in how fracture energy scales with event size, which implies that faults weaken differently during small and large earthquakes, and earthquakes are not self-similar. We use an elastodynamic numerical model of earthquake rupture to explore possible mechanisms. We find that thermal pressurization of pore fluid by the rapid shear heating of fault gouge can account for the observed scaling of fracture energy in small and large earthquakes, over seven orders of fault slip magnitude. We conclude that thermal pressurization is a widespread and prominent process for fault weakening.

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Figure 1: Cascade of weakening at the tip of a dynamic shear rupture.
Figure 2: Fault fracture energy and gradual fault weakening with slip.
Figure 3: Variation of inferred event fracture energy with event slip.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery grant 371606), the National Science Foundation (grant EAR-1344993), and the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC; contribution No. 6004). SCEC is funded by NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-1033462 and USGS Cooperative Agreement G12AC20038.

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  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA

    Robert C. Viesca

  2. Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada

    Robert C. Viesca & Dmitry I. Garagash

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  1. Robert C. Viesca
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Viesca, R., Garagash, D. Ubiquitous weakening of faults due to thermal pressurization. Nature Geosci 8, 875–879 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2554

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