Reconstructing the evolution of fault zone architecture: Field‐based study of the core region of the Atera Fault, Central Japan

Abstract

AbstractIn order to reconstruct the architectural evolution of a fault zone with heterogeneous structures, we studied the Atera Fault in Central Japan, and described the detailed mesoscopic and microscopic features of the zone. The fault zone studied consists of a 1.2‐m wide fault core of fault breccia mixed with fragments derived from welded tuff, granite, and mafic volcanic rocks. The 1.2‐m wide fault core is bordered by a western damage zone characterized by a welded tuff fault breccia and an eastern damage zone characterized by a granite cataclasite. A secondary fault core, a 30‐cm wide granite‐derived fault gouge, cross‐cuts the granite cataclasite. Although welded tuff fault breccia and granite cataclasite are also pervasively fractured and fragmented, the fault cores are significantly affected by fragment size reduction due to intense abrasive wear and comminution. The 1.2‐m wide fault core includes fragments and a sharp dark layer composed of mafic volcanic rocks, which can be correlated with neighboring 1.6 Ma volcanic rocks. This observation places a younger constraint on the age of the fault core formation. Carbonate coating on basalt fragments in the 1.2‐m wide fault core has also been fractured indicating the repetition of intense fragmentation. Bifurcated, black and gray veins near the 1.2‐m wide fault core are likely injection veins, formed by the rapid injection of fine material within fault zones during seismic events. The granite‐derived fault gouge, characterized by hard granite fragments without intense brecciation and microfracturing, in a kaolinite‐rich clay matrix, is interpreted as the most recent slip zone within the exposed fault zone. A preview of published geological and hydrological studies of several fault zones shows that clay‐rich fault cores can exhibit much lower permeability than the adjacent damage zones represented in this present case by the welded tuff fault breccia and granite cataclasite.