Along-strike fault geometry controls damage zone parameters: the case of the Kornos-Aghios Ioannis Extensional Fault (Lemnos Island, NE Greece)

Abstract

The study of fault damage zones is key to the understanding of fault-related fluid flow in the upper crust with many applications, including groundwater and hydrocarbon exploration, and underground storage of CO2 and H. Many studies reveal that a relationship exists between fault damage zone width and net fault displacement. Despite this positive relationship, several factors such as the tectonic setting, the depth of deformation, the deformation mechanisms, and the evolving mechanical properties of fault rocks affect damage zone characteristics (e.g., width, asymmetry, fracture attitude, deformation intensity). Furthermore, recent studies show that the overall along-strike fault geometry may play a pivotal role in controlling damage zone characteristics. In particular, areas such as tip regions, linkage sectors, relay ramps and step-overs can be characterised by fault damage zone parameters markedly different from sectors away from these structural complexities. In this contribution, we present new structural data of fault damage zone parameters acquired along the 8 km long extensional Kornos-Aghios Ioannis Fault (KAIF) on Lemnos Island, North Aegean Sea, Greece. The KAIF deforms lower Miocene effusive and hypabyssal magmatic rocks and middle Eocene to lower Miocene turbidites. Deformed rock volumes along the KAIF are locally strongly altered by hydrothermal fluids (e.g., hydrothermal silicification). We provide a detailed characterization of the KAIF in terms of 2D fault geometry (mapped at 1:1000 scale) and kinematics and we present a characterization of fault damage zone parameters, including frequency and attitude of subsidiary fault-related fractures, in different fault sectors. The acquired data allowed us to define the boundaries of fault damage zones in the different sectors and to discuss the differences in terms of fracture attributes in linking- and tip-damage zones compared to damage zones away from these structural complexities. Our results show that fault damage zones in linkage and tip sectors are wider and that fault-related fractures are more clustered around several subsidiary faults with centimetre- to metre-offsets. Also, secondary fractures in linkage and tip sectors are less systematically oriented, thus increasing fracture network connectivity and, consequently, facilitating fluid mobility in structurally complex fault sectors.