Frictional strength and frictional instability of glaucophane gouges at blueschist temperatures support diverse modes of fault slip from slow slip events to moderate-sized earthquakes

Abstract

Fluid overpressure from the water released by subducted sediments and oceanic crust is an important mechanism for generating earthquakes via brittle failure and frictional instability. If unstable, such fault materials may also host diverse fault reactivation mechanisms from slow slip events to moderate-sized earthquakes in cold subduction zones. We examine this hypothesis for glaucophane gouge - a key index minerals for blueschist facies - at lower confining stresses where behavior is poorly understood. We measure friction and stability at temperatures of 100°C–500°C and effective normal stresses of 50–200 MPa, to explore the controls of temperature, stresses and excess pore fluid pressures on fault friction. The frictional coefficient of glaucophane at representative temperatures and stresses is ∼0.70, insensitive to temperature but with a slight increase at lower effective stresses. Elevating temperature promotes a transition from velocity-strengthening to weak velocity-weakening behavior, indicating the destabilizing effect of high temperature downdip in subduction zones. Reducing effective normal stress or concomitantly elevating pore fluid pressure further strengthens the velocity-weakening response and would be manifest as moderate-sized earthquakes. Our results support the potential for enhanced unstable sliding of glaucophane gouges at lower effective stresses and blueschist facies temperatures - with weak to moderate velocity-weakening responses upon fluid pressurization vital for understanding the abundance of slow slip to moderate-sized earthquakes apparent in cold subduction zones.