Frictional constitutive behavior of chlorite at low shearing rates and hydrothermal conditions

Abstract

Chlorite is a common, but understudied phyllosilicate mineral along continental and subduction zone faults. To understand the potential role of chlorite in different modes of fault slip, we measure the constitutive frictional properties of chlorite at low rates of deformation and shallow hydrothermal conditions by shearing powdered samples of water-saturated chlorite in the triaxial saw-cut configuration. Experiments were conducted at 25 to 130 °C, 130 MPa confining pressure, pore pressures from 10 MPa to 120 MPa, slip rates from 0.001 to 10 μm/s, and shear displacements up to 7.5 mm. The frictional strength of chlorite increases with increasing temperature from 25 to 130 °C (μ = 0.4 to 0.46), accompanied by an increased abundance of Riedel shears. Chlorite also transitions from rate-strengthening behavior at fast slip rates (0.1 to 10 μm/s) to rate-weakening or rate-neutral behavior at lower slip rates (0.001 to 0.01 μm/s), consistent with one hypothesis for the cause of slow slip. This transition in frictional behavior reflects different microphysical processes controlling the direct and evolution effects of friction. At low deformation rates, the magnitude and temperature sensitivity of the direct effect (a) are consistent with subcritical fracture. In contrast, the evolution effect (b) is insensitive to temperature and increases systematically with decreasing strain rate. We propose the increase in b and resulting rate-weakening behavior of chlorite with decreasing slip rate is controlled by time-dependent properties of adsorbed water to mineral surfaces.