David A Lockner

This chapter summarizes experimental observations and related theoretical developments of faulted and intact rock properties related to earthquake nucleation, failure and dynamic slip. We will be concerned primarily with earthquakes occurring in the brittle crust. Intermediate and deep-focus earthquakes have unique mechanical considerations that are discussed in Section 7. We focus on...

Deformation of porous crustal rock through diagenesis, tectonic loading, or other processes can change pore volume and affect fluid pressure. The largest stress-induced pore pressure changes occur when fluid is trapped in pores in an “undrained” condition. We have measured the undrained poroelastic response of two sandstones to changes in mean and deviatoric stress. Pore pressure was...

The frictional strength of brucite gouge has been measured at hydrothermal conditions to 450°C. At room temperature, brucite has a coefficient of friction, μ ≈ 0.30, making it one of the weakest minerals identified to date. With increasing temperature at a constant effective normal stress, the coefficient of friction of brucite decreases to a minimum of μ ≈ 0.20 near 300°C, and μ ≈ 0.22...

Porosity, density and strength measurements were conducted on rock samples collected from the Hayward Fault region in Northern California as part of the Hayward Fault Working Group’s efforts to create a working model of the Hayward Fault. The rocks included in this study were both fine and coarse grained gabbros, altered keratophyre, basalt, sandstone, and serpentinite from various rock...

Detailed study of core samples of silicic tuff recovered from three geothermal wells along the strike-slip Great Sumatran fault zone near Silangkitang, North Sumatra, supports a model for enhanced hydrothermal circulation adjacent to this major plate-boundary fault. Two wells (A and C) were drilled nearly vertically ∼1 km southwest of the eastern (i.e., the principal) fault trace, and...

The formation of impermeable fault seals between earthquake events is a feature of many models of earthquake generation, suggesting that earthquake recurrence may depend in part on the rate of permeability reduction of fault zone materials under hydrothermal conditions. In this study, permeability measurements were conducted on intact, fractured, and gouge-bearing Westerly granite at an...

No abstract available.

Many recent studies of stress-triggered seismicity rely on a fault failure model with a single free parameter, the apparent coefficient of friction, presumed to be a material constant with possible values 0 ≤ μ′ ≤ 1. These studies may present a misleading view of fault strength and the role of pore fluid pressure in earthquake failure. The parameter μ′ is intended to incorporate the...

Recent studies suggest that the tendency of many fault gouge minerals to take on adsorbed or interlayer water may strongly influence their frictional strength. To test this hypothesis, triaxial sliding experiments were conducted on 15 different single-mineral gouges with various water-adsorbing affinities. Vacuum dried samples were sheared at 100 MPa, then saturated with water and...

We have conducted a series of laboratory simulations of earthquakes using granite cylinders containing precut bare fault surfaces at 50 MPa confining pressure. Axial shortening rates between 10−4and 10−6 mm/s were imposed to simulate tectonic loading. Average loading rate was then modulated by the addition of a small-amplitude sine wave to simulate periodic loading due to Earth tides or...

A semiempirical constitutive law is presented for the brittle deformation of intact Westerly granite. The law can be extended to larger displacements, dominated by localized deformation, by including a displacement-weakening break-down region terminating in a frictional sliding regime often described by a rate- and state-dependent constitutive law. The intact deformation law, based on an...

We analyze friction data from two published suites of laboratory tests on granite in order to explore and quantify the effects of temperature (T) and pore water pressure (Pp) on the sliding behavior of faults. Rate-stepping sliding tests were performed on laboratory faults in granite containing “gouge” (granite powder), both dry at 23° to 845°C [Lockner et al., 1986], and wet (Pp = 100...