Long-term slow slip events are not necessarily caused by high pore fluid pressure at the plate interface: an implication from two-dimensional model calculations

Abstract

A recent tomographic study proposed that high-pore pressure in the deeper portion of the locked zone of a subduction thrust resulting from metamorphic dehydration reactions may cause long-term slow slip events. The study used the concept of ‘critical fault stiffness’, which derives from laboratory-derived rate- and state-dependent friction laws. To test the proposition, we execute 2-D model calculations using laboratory-derived rate- and state-dependent friction laws. Our numerical result is against the proposition, but it can also be explained by the concept of the critical fault stiffness. We agree that metamorphic dehydration reactions definitely produce a bulk property of high fluid saturation, but we caution that they do not necessarily lead to high-pore pressure in the fault zone.