Skip to main content
Earth, Planets and Space
Download PDF

Volume 54 Supplement 11

Special Issue: Slip and Flow Processes in and below the Seismogenic Region

  • Article
  • Published:

Fluid pressure evolution during the earthquake cycle controlled by fluid flow and pressure solution crack sealing

Earth, Planets and Space volume 54, pages 1139–1146 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent studies of active Californian faults allow us to investigate the mechanisms of fluid flow and crack sealing along faults and to model fluid pressure evolution during earthquake cycles. The model is first based on the observation that fluids flow from depth along active faults (stables isotopes and traces elements analyses). The model is also based on the study of mechanisms of deformation of rocks near and within active faults at depth. Sampling was performed in faults that have been recently uplifted. Studies on thin sections of rocks produce evidence of the mechanisms of crack sealing and compaction of fractured zones as transient processes after each earthquake. We found that pressure solution creep and crack sealing are likely to control deformation and permeability change during inter-seismic period. Crack sealing and compaction processes are modeled to give the kinetics of these processes. Then numerical modeling of fluid pressure and transfer around active faults have been performed by integrating slow changes in permeability by crack sealing, gouge compaction and fluid flow from depth. This modeling shows that location and evolution of fluid overpressure varies during the inter-seismic period depending on the heterogeneity of the faults (nature of minerals and fluids, spacing between micro-fractures, thermodynamic and kinetics parameters).

References

  • Brantley, S., B. Evans, S. H. Hickman, and D. A. Crerar, Healing of microcracks in quartz: implications for fluid flow, Geology, 18, 136–139, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byerlee, J., Friction, overpressure and fault normal compression, Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 2109–2112, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donnelan, A. and D. A. Lyzenga, GPS observations of fault afterslip and upper crustal deformation following the Northridge earthquake, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 21285–21297, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fyfe, W. S., N. J. Price, and A. B. Thompson, Fluids in the earth’s crust, 383 pp., Elsevier, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gratier, J. P., Pressure solution deposition creep and associated chemical differenciation in sedimentary rocks, in Deformation Mechanisms in Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks, edited by M. E. Jones and R. M. F. Preston, J. Geol. Soc. Lond. spec. publ. No. 29, 25–38, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gratier, J. P. and R. Guiguet, Experimental pressure solution-deposition on quartz grains: the crucial effect of the nature of the fluid, Journal of Structural Geology, 8, 845–856, 1986.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gratier, J. P., F. Renard, and P. Labaume, How pressure-solution and fractures interact in the upper crust to make it behave in both a brittle and viscous manner, Journal of Structural Geology, 21, 1189–1197, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gratier, J., P. Favreau, and F. Renard, Modeling fluid transfer along Californian faults when integrating pressure solution crack-sealing and compaction processes, J. Geophys. Res., 2002 (in press).

  • Kennedy, B. M., Y. K. Kharaka, W. C. Evans, A. Ellwood, D. J. DePaolo, J. Thordsen, G. Ambats, and R. H. Mariner, Mantle fluids in the San Andreas fault system, California, Science, 278, 1278–1280, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lockner, D. and B. Evans, Densification of quartz powder and reduction of conductivity at 700°C, J. Geophys. Res., 100(B7), 13081–13092, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nino, F., J. Chéry, and J. P. Gratier, Mechanical modeling of compressional basins: origin and interaction of faults, erosion and subsidence in the Ventura Basin, California, Tectonics, 17, 955–972, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oelkers, E. H., P. A. Bjørkum, and W. M. Murphy, A petrographic and computational investigation of quartz cementation and porosity reduction in North Sea sandstones, American Journal of Science, 296, 420–452, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pili, E., B. M. Kennedy, M. S. Conrad, and J. P. Gratier, Isotope constraints on the involvement of fluids in the San Andreas Fault, EOS Trans, AGU, 79(17), Spring meeting, 1998.

  • Pili, E., B. M. Kennedy, J. P. Gratier, and M. E. Conrad, Mantle and metamorphic origin of fluids in the veins of the San Andreas fault system deduced from isotopes studies, J. Geophys. Res., 2002a (in preparation).

  • Pili, E., F. Poitrasson, and J. P. Gratier, Carbon-oxygen and trace elements constraints on how fluids percolate faulted limestone from the San Andreas Fault system: the role of partitioning of fluid sources and pathways, Chemical Geology, 190(1–4), 231–250, 2002b.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raj, R., Creep in polycrystalline aggregates by matter transport through a liquid phase, J. Geophys. Res., 87, 4731–4739, 1982.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renard, F., P. Ortoleva, and J. P. Gratier, Pressure solution in sandstones: influence of clays and dependence on temperature and stress, Tectonophys., 280(3–4), 257–266, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renard, F., J. P. Gratier, and B. Jamtveit, Kinetics of crack-sealing, intergranular pressure solution and compaction around active faults, Journal Structural Geology, 22, 1395–1407, 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rice, J. R., Fault stress states, pore pressure distributions, and the weakness of the San Andreas Fault, in Fault Mechanics and Transport Properties in Rocks, edited by B. Evans and T. F. Wong, pp. 475–503, Academic Press, 1992.

  • Rutter, E. H., The kinetics of rock deformation by pressure solution, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 283, 203–219, 1976.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, E. H., Pressure solution in nature, theory and experiment, J. Geol. Soc. London, 140, 725–740, 1983. Shimizu, I., Kinetics of pressure solution creep in quartz: theoretical considerations, Tectonophys., 245, 121–134, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibson, R. H., Fluid flow accompanying faulting: field evidence and models, in Earthquake Prediction: An International Review, edited by D. W. Simpson and P. G. Richards, pp. 593–603, Maurice Ewing Series, AGU, 1981.

  • Sleep, N. H. and M. L. Blanpied, Ductile creep and compaction: a mechanism for transiently increasing fluid pressure in mostly sealed fault zones, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 143(1/2/3), 9–40, 1994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spiers, C. J. and P. M. Schutjens, Densification of crystalline aggregates by fluid phase diffusional creep, in Deformation Process in Minerals, Ceramics and Rocks, edited by D. J. Barber and P. G. Meredith, pp. 334–353, Unwin Hyman, 1990.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LGIT, CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53X, 38041, Grenoble, 38041, France

    Jean-Pierre Gratier, Pascal Favreau & François Renard

  2. DASE, CEA, BP 12, 91680, Bruyères le Châtel, 91680, France

    Eric Pili

Authors
  1. Jean-Pierre Gratier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pascal Favreau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. François Renard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Eric Pili
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean-Pierre Gratier.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gratier, JP., Favreau, P., Renard, F. et al. Fluid pressure evolution during the earthquake cycle controlled by fluid flow and pressure solution crack sealing. Earth Planet Sp 54, 1139–1146 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353315

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353315

Keywords