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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2020-04-18
    Description: During reservoir stimulations, the injection of fluids with variable viscosities can trigger seismicity. Several fault lubrication mechanisms have been invoked to explain the dynamic stress drop occurring during those seismic events. Here, we perform a parametric analysis of the elastohydrodynamic fault lubrication mechanism to assess its efficiency during fluid-induced earthquakes. The efficiency of the mechanism is measured with the dimensionless Sommerfeld number S. Accordingly, we analysed eight well-documented cases of induced seismicity associated with the injection of fluids whose viscosities range from 1 mPa s (water) to 100 mPa s (proppant). We collected information related to the in situ stress field, fault orientation and geometry, moment of magnitude and static stress drop of the events. These parameters allow us to analyse the variation in the Sommerfeld number. Our results show that the estimated dynamic friction on the fault during the event is compatible with the fault weakening predicted by the elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory, particularly for highly viscous fluids.
    Print ISSN: 0956-540X
    Electronic ISSN: 1365-246X
    Topics: Geosciences
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2020-10-27
    Description: Fluids are pervasive in fault zones cutting the Earth's crust; however, the effect of fluid viscosity on fault mechanics is mainly conjectured by theoretical models. We present friction experiments performed on both dry and fluid-permeated silicate and carbonate bearing-rocks, at normal effective stresses up to 20 MPa, with a slip-rate ranging between 10 μm/s and 1 m/s. Four different fluid viscosities were tested. We show that both static and dynamic friction coefficients decrease with viscosity and that dynamic friction depends on the dimensionless Sommerfeld number (S) as predicted by the elastohydrodynamic-lubrication theory (EHD).Under favourable conditions (depending on the fluid viscosity (η), co-seismic slip-rate (V), fault geometry (L/H02) and earthquake nucleation depth (∝σeff)), EHD might be an effective weakening mechanism during natural and induced earthquakes. However, at seismic slip-rate, the slip weakening distance (Dc) increases markedly for a range of fluid viscosities expected in the Earth, potentially favouring slow-slip rather than rupture propagation for small to moderate earthquakes.
    Description: Published
    Description: 1274
    Description: 3T. Sorgente sismica
    Description: 2IT. Laboratori analitici e sperimentali
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2022-03-17
    Description: Physics of earthquake source can be investigated by monitoring active faults from borehole observatory in reservoirs (Maxwell et al. 2010) or by interpretation of seismic waves at the earth’s surface (Shearer 2019). Indeed, most information on earthquake mechanics is retrieved from seismology (e.g., Lee et al. 2002). However, the low resolution of these indirect techniques (cm to km scale) yields limited information on the physical and chemical deformation mechanisms active during earthquake rupture nucleation and propagation (Kanamori and Anderson 1975). Experimental studies of frictional instabilities on fault gouge material or pre-existing surfaces (e.g., Brace and Byerlee 1966) may overcome those limitations (Scholz 1998; Marone 1998; Persson 2013). For instance, friction controls earthquake nucleation and propagation, the static and dynamic stress drops, the frictional heat generated during slip, and consequently the energy budget of earthquakes (Scholz 2019; Di Toro et al. 2011). All these processes can be investigated and monitored through laboratory experiments. In the last decades, rock friction properties have long been investigated using triaxial apparatuses in saw-cut configuration (e.g., Jaeger 1959; Byerlee 1967; Handin 1969), in which the fault is loaded at low velocities, typically orders of µm/s, and accumulates small displacements, typically few mm. In a seminal paper, Brace and Byerlee (1966) suggested that the stick–slip phenomenon observed in these rock friction experiments is analogous to natural earthquakes. Furthermore, to address the problem of earthquakes nucleation, biaxial apparatuses were developed and have long been used to study frictional properties of experimental faults under sub-seismic slip velocities in double-direct shear configuration (e.g., Dieterich 1972; Mair et al. 2002; Collettini et al. 2014; Giorgetti et al. 2015). The biaxial apparatus developed at USGS (USA) is amongst the first biaxial apparatuses used to investigate rock frictional properties (e.g., Dieterich 1972). Other pioneering biaxial apparatuses are the one in the Rock and Sediment Mechanics Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University (USA) (e.g., Mair et al. 2002) and BRAVA (Brittle Rock deformAtion Versatile Apparatus) installed at INGV in Rome (Italy) (Collettini et al. 2014). Although the biaxial apparatuses developed in the past 50 years are characterized by different boundary conditions in terms of forces, pressures, temperatures and size of the samples, all of them take advantages from the double-direct shear configuration that allows good control of the normal and shear forces acting of the fault, accurate measurements of fault slip and dilation/compaction, and constant contact area. Friction studies conducted with triaxial and biaxial deformation apparatuses are characterized by sub-seismic slip velocities and a limited amount of slip, 〈 10–3 m/s and few cm, respectively (e.g., Jaeger 1959; Byerlee 1967,1978; Brace and Byerlee 1966; Handin 1969; Paterson and Wong 2005; Lockner and Beeler 2002; Mair et al. 2002; Savage and Marone 2007; Samuelson et al. 2009; Carpenter et al. 2016). These experiments showed that the apparent static friction coefficient μ (i.e., μ = τ/σneff, where τ is the shear stress and σneff the effective normal stress acting on the fault) is between 0.60 and 0.85 for most rocks (Byerlee’s rule; except for phyllosilicates-rich rocks [Byerlee 1978]), for normal stresses up to 2 GPa, and temperatures up to 780 K. The apparent friction can thus be expressed as a function of slip velocity and a state variable, and modelled with the empirical rate- and state-dependent friction law (Dieterich 1979; Ruina 1983). Additionally, at velocities typical of earthquake nucleation phase, the apparent friction varies only a few percents for small changes in slip velocity, determining if a fault is or not prone to nucleate earthquakes. Although Byerlee’s rule and the rate-and-state law have many applications in earthquake mechanics (inter-seismic and nucleation phase of earthquakes), these experiments were performed at slip velocities and displacements orders of magnitude smaller than those of earthquakes. Therefore, these experiments are unable to characterize the propagation phase of earthquakes. In the last 15 years, the multiplication of the rotary shear apparatus, designed to achieve slip velocities higher than 1 m/s and infinite displacement, overcome those limitations and produced unexpected results (Di Toro et al. 2010). A pioneering rotary shear apparatus capable of achieving seismic slip velocities up to 1.3 m/s were built and installed in Japan (Shimamoto 1994). Amongst others (see Di Toro et al. 2010 and references therein), a state-of-art rotary shear apparatus (SHIVA, Slow to High-Velocity Shear Apparatus) capable of deforming samples at slip rates up to 9 m/s has been installed at INGV in Rome (Italy) (Di Toro et al. 2010). Studies performed with these rotary shear apparatuses have shown a significant decrease in fault strength with increasing slip and slip velocity. They also reveal various dynamic fault‐weakening mechanisms (frictional melting, thermal pressurization, silica gel, elastohydrodynamic lubrication) that are likely active during earthquakes, including mechanisms that were unknown before conducting these experiments. Though this new frontier is promising, key aspects of earthquake mechanics laboratory investigation, like being able to conduct high slip velocity experiments on rocks under elevated pore fluid pressure and temperatures characteristic of natural and induced earthquakes, remain beyond current experimental capabilities. Furthermore, studying links between pore‐fluid pressure, permeability, and frictional properties remains a challenge. To date, very few high-velocity friction experiments have been performed in presence of pore fluid pressure (Tanikawa 2012a, b, 2014; Violay et al. 2014, 2015, 2019; Cornelio et al. 2019a, b). In this paper, we present a new state-of-art apparatus combining the advantages of biaxial apparatuses, i.e., simple geometry, high normal forces, confining pressure and pore fluid pressure, and the advantages of the rotary shear apparatuses, i.e. high slip velocity implemented thanks to the presence of electromagnetic motors. Building on the design of recent low-velocity biaxial machines implemented with pressure vessels (Samuelson et al. 2009; Collettini et al. 2014) and implementing the system with powerful linear motors (Di Toro et al. 2010), the new HighSTEPS (High Strain TEmperature Pressure Speed) apparatus is able to reproduce the deformation conditions typical of the seismogenic crust, i.e., confining pressure up to 100 MPa, slip velocity from 10–5 to 0.25 m/s, temperature up to 120 °C, pore pressure up to 100 MPa. Under these unique boundary conditions, the new apparatus allows the investigation of the entire seismic cycle (inter-seismic, nucleation and propagation).
    Description: Published
    Description: 2039–2052
    Description: 3T. Fisica dei terremoti e Sorgente Sismica
    Description: JCR Journal
    Keywords: Biaxial friction apparatus ; Low to high slip velocity ; Deformation conditions of the seismogenic upper crust
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2021-12-16
    Description: The elastic strain energy release rate and seismic waves emitted during earthquakes are controlled by the on-fault temporal evolution of the shear stress during rupture propagation. High velocity friction experiments highlighted that shear stress on the fault surface evolves rapidly during seismic slip pulses. This temporal evolution of shear stress is controlled by both fault weakening at seismic slip initiation and re-strengthening rate towards the end of slip. While numerous studies focused on fault weakening, less attention was given to co-seismic re-strengthening processes. Here we performed 53 friction experiments (normal stress ≤30 MPa, slip-rate ≤6.5 m s−1) imposing constant slip acceleration and deceleration (7.8 m s−2), on cohesive Carrara marble (99% calcite) and micro-gabbro (silicate-built rock) under dry, vacuum and water pressurized conditions. Microstructural observations showed that micro-gabbro accommodated seismic slip by bulk melting of the sliding surfaces, whereas Carrara marble by coupled decarbonation and grain-size dependent crystal plastic processes. Under room humidity conditions and low imposed power density (i.e., product of normal stress per slip rate), re-strengthening rate during the deceleration stage was up to ∼ 17 times faster in marble than in micrograbbro. In the latter, the re-strengthening rate increased slightly with the power density. The presence of water enhanced further this trend. On the contrary, in marbles the re-strengthening rate decreased drastically with power density and in the presence of water. Our experimental observations highlighted the first order importance of the mineralogy and rheology of the slip zone materials and, to a second order, of the presence of water in controlling co-seismic re-strengthening of faults during seismic slip deceleration.
    Description: Published
    Description: 55-64
    Description: 3T. Sorgente sismica
    Description: 2IT. Laboratori analitici e sperimentali
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2023-11-21
    Description: High‐viscosity fluids are often used during hydraulic fracking operations in georeservoirs. Here we performed dedicated experiments to study the influence of fluid viscosity on fault reactivation and associated induced earthquakes. Experiments were conducted in the rotary‐shear machine Slow to HIgh Velocity Apparatus on experimental fault of Westerly granite saturated by fluids with increasing viscosity (at room temperature) from 0.1 mPa s (water) to 1.2 Pa s (99% glycerol). Fault reactivation was triggered at constant effective normal stress by increasing the shear stress acting on the fault. Our results showed that independent of the viscosity, fault reactivation followed a Coulomb‐failure criterion. Instead, fluid viscosity affected the fault weakening mechanism: flash heating was the dominant weakening mechanism in room humidity and water‐saturated conditions, whereas the presence of more viscous fluids favored the activation of elasto‐hydrodynamic lubrication. Independent of the weakening mechanism, the breakdown work Wb dissipated during seismic faulting increased with slip U following a power law (Wb ∝ U 1.25) in agreement with seismological estimates of natural and induced earthquakes.
    Description: Published
    Description: e2019JB018883
    Description: 3T. Sorgente sismica
    Description: 2IT. Laboratori analitici e sperimentali
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2023-02-01
    Description: While sliding at seismic slip-rates of ∼1 m/s, natural faults undergo an abrupt decrease of shear stress called dynamic weakening. Asperity-scale (〈〈mm) processes related to flash heating and weakening and, meso-scale (mm-cm) processes involving shear across the bulk slip-zone, related to frictional melting or viscous flow of minerals, have been invoked to explain pronounced velocity-dependent weakening. Here we present a compilation of ∼100 experiments performed with two rotary shear apparatuses. Cohesive rock cylinders of basalt, gabbro, granitoid rocks and calcitic marble were sheared at various values of effective normal stress (σneff = 5–40 MPa), target slip-rate (Vt = 0.1–6.5 m/s) and fluid pressure (Pf = 0–15 MPa). To account for the uncertainties of constitutive parameters, we introduce a norm-based optimization procedure on a set of model parameters by comparing the shear stress evolution inferred from the proposed weakening models with the shear stress measured during the experiments. We analyze the fit to experimental data of each weakening model and we discuss a composite model in which two weakening mechanisms (namely flash heating and bulk melting, flash heating and dislocation/diffusion creep) are used to test the hypothesis that they match the shear stress evolution in different slip ranges. We found that for slip smaller than a slip-switch distance δ0, the weakening is better described by mechanisms occurring at the asperity scale whereas for larger slip values the bulk model performs better. The inferred δ0 values decrease with normal stress suggesting that during earthquakes bulk mechanisms can govern shear stress evolution after a few centimeters of slip.
    Description: Published
    Description: e2022JB024356
    Description: 3T. Fisica dei terremoti e Sorgente Sismica
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 7
    Publication Date: 2024-03-19
    Description: Large seismogenic faults consist of approximately meter-thick fault cores surrounded by hundreds-of-meters-thick damage zones. Earthquakes are generated by rupture propagation and slip within fault cores and dissipate the stored elastic strain energy in fracture and frictional processes in the fault zone and in radiated seismic waves. Understanding this energy partitioning is fundamental in earthquake mechanics to explain fault dynamic weakening and causative rupture processes operating over different spatial and temporal scales. The energy dissipated in the earthquake rupture propagation along a fault is called fracture energy or breakdown work. Here we review fracture energy estimates from seismological, modeling, geological, and experimental studies and show that fracture energy scales with fault slip. We conclude that although material-dependent constant fracture energies are important at the microscale for fracturing grains of the fault zone, they are negligible with respect to the macroscale processes governing rupture propagation on natural faults.
    Description: Published
    Description: 217-252
    Description: OST3 Vicino alla faglia
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2024-03-20
    Description: Earthquakes often occur along faults in the presence of hot, pressurized water. Here we exploit a new experimental device to study friction in gabbro faults with water in vapor, liquid and supercritical states (water temperature and pressure up to 400 °C and 30 MPa, respectively). The experimental faults are sheared over slip velocities from 1 μm/s to 100 mm/s and slip distances up to 3 m (seismic deformation conditions). Here, we show with water in the vapor state, fault friction decreases with increasing slip distance and velocity. However, when water is in the liquid or supercritical state, friction decreases with slip distance, regardless of slip velocity. We propose that the formation of weak minerals, the chemical bonding properties of water and (elasto)hydrodynamic lubrication may explain the weakening behavior of the experimental faults. In nature, the transition of water from liquid or supercritical to vapor state can cause an abrupt increase in fault friction that can stop or delay the nucleation phase of an earthquake.
    Description: Published
    Description: 4612
    Description: OST3 Vicino alla faglia
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2024-03-20
    Description: The frictional power per unit area (product of frictional traction τ and slip rate in MW m−2) dissipated during earthquakes triggers fault dynamic weakening mechanisms that control rupture nucleation, propagation and arrest. Although of great relevance in earthquake mechanics, cannot, with rare exceptions, be determined by geophysical methods. Here we exploit theoretical, experimental and geological constraints to estimate dissipated on a fault patch exhumed from 7-9 km depth. According to theoretical models, in polymineralic, silicate rocks the amplitude (〈 1 mm) of the grain-scale roughness of the boundary between frictional melt (pseudotachylyte) and host rock decreases with increasing . The dependence of grain-scale roughness with is due to differential melt front migration in the host rock minerals. This dependence is confirmed by friction experiments reproducing seismic slip where pseudotachylytes were produced by shearing tonalite at ranging from 5 to 25 MW m−2. In natural pseudotachylytes across tonalites, the grain-scale roughness broadly decreases from extensional to compressional fault domains where lower and higher are expected, respectively. Analysis of the natural dataset calibrated by experiments yields values in the range of 4-60 MW m−2 (16 MW m−2 average value). These values, estimated in small fault patches, are at the lower end of broad estimates of (3-300 MW m−2) obtained from frictional tractions (30-300 MPa) and fault slip rates (0.1-1 m/s) assumed as typical of upper crustal earthquakes.
    Description: Published
    Description: 118057
    Description: OST3 Vicino alla faglia
    Description: JCR Journal
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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