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Changes to magnetic minerals caused by frictional heating during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake

Earth, Planets and Space volume 61, pages 797–801 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

We carried out magnetic mineral analyses of samples from the shallowest major fault zone within the Chelungpu fault system, which is the zone that previous researchers believe slipped during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake. Our aim was to gain an understanding of the changes to magnetic minerals during the earthquake. Magnetic hysteresis and low-temperature thermal demagnetization measurements showed that high magnetic susceptibilities in the black gouge zone within the major fault zone could be attributed not to fining of ferrimagnetic minerals but, rather, to their abundance. Thermomagnetic analyses indicated that the strata in and around the fault zone originally contained thermally unstable iron-bearing paramagnetic minerals, such as pyrite, siderite, and chlorite. We therefore concluded that frictional heating (>400°C) occurred in the black gouge zone in the major fault zone during the slip of the Chi-Chi earthquake and that the resultant high temperature induced thermal decomposition of paramagnetic minerals to form magnetite, resulting in the observed high magnetic susceptibilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Inland Seas, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Toshiaki Mishima

  2. Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan

    Tetsuro Hirono

  3. Department of Geoenvironmental Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Norihiro Nakamura

  4. Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Nankoku, Japan

    Wataru Tanikawa & Wonn Soh

  5. Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Sheng-Rong Song

Authors
  1. Toshiaki Mishima
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  2. Tetsuro Hirono
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  3. Norihiro Nakamura
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  4. Wataru Tanikawa
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  5. Wonn Soh
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  6. Sheng-Rong Song
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Correspondence to Tetsuro Hirono.

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Mishima, T., Hirono, T., Nakamura, N. et al. Changes to magnetic minerals caused by frictional heating during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake. Earth Planet Sp 61, 797–801 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353185

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353185

Key words

  • Frictional heating
  • 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake
  • Chelungpu fault
  • ferrimagnetic mineral