Dynamic earthquake rupture in the lower crust.

Science Advances
Arianne Petley-RaganBjørn Jamtveit

Abstract

Earthquakes in the continental crust commonly occur in the upper 15 to 20 km. Recent studies demonstrate that earthquakes also occur in the lower crust of collision zones and play a key role in metamorphic processes that modify its physical properties. However, details of the failure process and sequence of events that lead to seismic slip in the lower crust remain uncertain. Here, we present observations of a fault zone from the Bergen Arcs, western Norway, which constrain the deformation processes of lower crustal earthquakes. We show that seismic slip and associated melting are preceded by fracturing, asymmetric fragmentation, and comminution of the wall rock caused by a dynamically propagating rupture. The succession of deformation processes reported here emphasize brittle failure mechanisms in a portion of the crust that until recently was assumed to be characterized by ductile deformation.

References

Aug 19, 2005·Nature·Giulio Di ToroGiorgio Pennacchioni
Mar 16, 2007·Physical Review Letters·S Braeck, Y Y Podladchikov
Mar 7, 2017·Science Advances·Håkon AustrheimBjørn Jamtveit
Apr 27, 2018·Nature·Bjørn JamtveitHåkon Austrheim
Nov 20, 2018·Scientific Reports·Bjørn JamtveitStefan M Schmalholz

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Citations

Sep 13, 2020·Science Advances·Lifeng Wang, Sylvain Barbot
Feb 2, 2021·Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·Luca MenegonGiorgio Pennacchioni

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
electron backscatter
X-ray
x-ray tomography

Software Mentioned

AvizoFire
MATLAB
MTEX

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