Transient water adsorption on newly formed fault gouge and its relation to frictional heating

Abstract Determination of the amount of frictional heating on faults during slips provides insight into the mechanics of faulting. Fault slips cause frictional heating as well as production of gouge materials. Newly formed gouge is mechanochemically stimulated to gain a transient water adsorption ab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: K. Mizoguchi, T. Hirose
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2016-08-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069776
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Summary:Abstract Determination of the amount of frictional heating on faults during slips provides insight into the mechanics of faulting. Fault slips cause frictional heating as well as production of gouge materials. Newly formed gouge is mechanochemically stimulated to gain a transient water adsorption ability. We showed that the synthetic gouge from friction tests on rocks at a 1 mm/s slip rate without frictional heating adsorbed a large amount of water, comparable to that adsorbed by clay minerals. The amount of adsorbed water decreased significantly with increasing slip rate to 100 mm/s, where the fault temperature increased above 400°C. We confirmed there was no additional adsorption on the heated gouges after termination of the slip. We conclude that the adsorption state can be considered a new indicator of a temperature rise of < 400°C by frictional heating associated with recent, near‐surface faulting.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007