HR: 17:00h
AN: T14A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Periodic Viscous Shear Heating Instability in Fine-Grained Shear Zones: Mechanism for Intermediate Depth Earthquakes
AU: Coon, E
EM:
AF: Lamont, LDEO, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: * Kelemen, P
EM: peterk@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont, LDEO, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Hirth, G
EM:
AF: WHOI, GG, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Spiegelman, M
EM:
AF: Lamont, LDEO, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AB: Kelemen and Hirth (Fall 2004 AGU) presented a model for periodic, viscous shear heating instabilities along pre-existing, fine grained shear zones. This provides an attractive alternative to dehydration embrittlement for explaining intermediate-depth earthquakes, especially those in a narrow thermal window within the mantle section of subducting oceanic plates (Hacker et al JGR03). Ductile shear zones with widths of cm to m are common in shallow mantle massifs and peridotite along oceanic fracture zones. Pseudotachylites in a mantle shear zone show that shear heating temperatures exceeded the mantle solidus (Obata & Karato Tectonophys95). Olivine grain growth in shear zones is pinned by closely spaced pyroxenes; thus, once formed, these features do not `heal' on geological time scales in the absence of melt or fluid (Warren & Hirth EPSL05). Grain-size sensitive creep will be localized within these shear zones, in preference to host rocks with olivine grain size from 1 to 10 mm. Inspired by the work of Whitehead & Gans (GJRAS74), we proposed that such pre-existing shear zones might undergo repeated shear heating instabilities. This is not a new concept; what is new is that viscous deformation is limited to a narrow shear zone, because grain boundary sliding, sensitive to both stress and grain size, may accommodate creep even at high stress and high temperature. These new ideas yield a new result: simple models for a periodic shear heating instability. Last year, we presented a 1D numerical model using olivine flow laws, assuming that viscous deformation remains localized in shear zones, surrounded by host rocks undergoing elastic deformation. Stress evolves due to elastic strain and drives viscous deformation in a shear zone of specified width. Shear heating and thermal diffusion control T. A maximum of 1400 C (substantial melting of peridotite ) was imposed. Grain size evolves due to recrystallization and diffusion. For strain rates of E-13 to E-14 per sec and initial T of 600 to 850 C, this produced periodic viscous shear heating events with periods of 100's to 1000's of years. Strain rates during these events approach 1 per second as temperatures reach 1400. Cooling between events returns the shear zone almost to its initial temperature, though ultimately shear zone temperature between events exceeds 850 C resulting in stable viscous creep. Analysis shows that our system of equations jumps from one steady state to another, depending on a non-dimensional number relating the rate of shear heating to the rate of diffusive cooling. This year, Kelemen and Hirth show that the rate of stress drop during shear heating events is greater than the rate of elastic stress relaxation, so that shear heating events are a runaway instability. Rather than capping the temperature at 1400 C, we parameterize melt fraction as a function of T, and shear viscosity as a function of melt fraction. A problem with our 1D model is that predicted displacements are too large (1 to 20 m) during shear heating events, essentially because there is no resistance at shear zone ends. To address this, Coon and Spiegelman have embarked on a 3D model, incorporating a pre-existing fine-grained, tabular shear zone of finite extent, with a visco-elastic rheology for both shear zone and wall rocks. Preliminary 1D models using this approach show that the more complicated rheology yields the same result as the simpler model. We will present preliminary results, and determine the Maxwell time for this problem, since low strain rates could produce viscous relaxation in both shear zone and wall rocks with negligible shear heating.
DE: 1031 Subduction zone processes (3060, 3613, 8170, 8413)
DE: 1207 Transient deformation (6924, 7230, 7240)
DE: 8118 Dynamics and mechanics of faulting (8004)
DE: 8163 Rheology and friction of fault zones (8034)
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005