Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite

Abstract In the upper crust, where brittle deformation mechanisms dominate, the development of crack networks subject to anisotropic stress fields generates stress‐induced elastic anisotropy. Here a rock specimen of Westerly granite was submitted to differential stress cycles (i.e., loading and unlo...

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Main Authors: François. X. Passelègue, Lucas Pimienta, Daniel Faulkner, Alexandre Schubnel, Jérôme Fortin, Yves Guéguen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-08-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078434
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author François. X. Passelègue
Lucas Pimienta
Daniel Faulkner
Alexandre Schubnel
Jérôme Fortin
Yves Guéguen
author_facet François. X. Passelègue
Lucas Pimienta
Daniel Faulkner
Alexandre Schubnel
Jérôme Fortin
Yves Guéguen
author_sort François. X. Passelègue
collection DOAJ
description Abstract In the upper crust, where brittle deformation mechanisms dominate, the development of crack networks subject to anisotropic stress fields generates stress‐induced elastic anisotropy. Here a rock specimen of Westerly granite was submitted to differential stress cycles (i.e., loading and unloading) of increasing amplitudes, up to failure and under upper crustal conditions. Combined records of strains, acoustic emissions, and P and S elastic wave anisotropies demonstrate that increasing differential stress promotes crack opening, sliding, and propagation subparallel to the main compressive stress orientation. However, the significant elastic anisotropies observed during loading (≥20%) almost vanish upon stress removal, demonstrating that in the absence of stress, crack‐related elastic anisotropy remains limited (≤10%). As a consequence, (i) crack‐related elastic anisotropies measured in the crust will likely be a strong function of the level of differential stress, and consequently (ii) continuous monitoring of elastic wave velocity anisotropy along faults could shed light on the mechanism of stress accumulation during interseismic loading.
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publishDate 2018-08-01
publisher Wiley
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series Geophysical Research Letters
spelling doaj-art-842d0beed4b84884b9d8c49df17bc2cd2025-08-20T01:58:00ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072018-08-0145168156816610.1029/2018GL078434Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly GraniteFrançois. X. Passelègue0Lucas Pimienta1Daniel Faulkner2Alexandre Schubnel3Jérôme Fortin4Yves Guéguen5SEAES The University of Manchester Manchester UKLaboratoire de Géologie CNRS UMR, École Normale Supérieure Paris FranceSchool of Environmental The University of Liverpool Liverpool UKLaboratoire de Géologie CNRS UMR, École Normale Supérieure Paris FranceLaboratoire de Géologie CNRS UMR, École Normale Supérieure Paris FranceLaboratoire de Géologie CNRS UMR, École Normale Supérieure Paris FranceAbstract In the upper crust, where brittle deformation mechanisms dominate, the development of crack networks subject to anisotropic stress fields generates stress‐induced elastic anisotropy. Here a rock specimen of Westerly granite was submitted to differential stress cycles (i.e., loading and unloading) of increasing amplitudes, up to failure and under upper crustal conditions. Combined records of strains, acoustic emissions, and P and S elastic wave anisotropies demonstrate that increasing differential stress promotes crack opening, sliding, and propagation subparallel to the main compressive stress orientation. However, the significant elastic anisotropies observed during loading (≥20%) almost vanish upon stress removal, demonstrating that in the absence of stress, crack‐related elastic anisotropy remains limited (≤10%). As a consequence, (i) crack‐related elastic anisotropies measured in the crust will likely be a strong function of the level of differential stress, and consequently (ii) continuous monitoring of elastic wave velocity anisotropy along faults could shed light on the mechanism of stress accumulation during interseismic loading.https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078434stress‐induced anisotropycrack densitiesacoustic emissionsdamage recoveryanisotropy recoveryKaiser effect
spellingShingle François. X. Passelègue
Lucas Pimienta
Daniel Faulkner
Alexandre Schubnel
Jérôme Fortin
Yves Guéguen
Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite
Geophysical Research Letters
stress‐induced anisotropy
crack densities
acoustic emissions
damage recovery
anisotropy recovery
Kaiser effect
title Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite
title_full Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite
title_fullStr Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite
title_full_unstemmed Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite
title_short Development and Recovery of Stress‐Induced Elastic Anisotropy During Cyclic Loading Experiment on Westerly Granite
title_sort development and recovery of stress induced elastic anisotropy during cyclic loading experiment on westerly granite
topic stress‐induced anisotropy
crack densities
acoustic emissions
damage recovery
anisotropy recovery
Kaiser effect
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078434
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