AbstractThe rate of fault zone restrengthening between earthquakes can be influenced by both frictional and cohesive healing processes. Friction is dependent on effective normal stress while cohesion is independent of normal stress, potentially explainingâin partâthe lack of depth dependence of earthquake stress drops. Although amenable to laboratory testing, few studies have systematically addressed the normal stress dependence of restrengthening rate. This is partially due to difficulty in separating relative contributions of friction and cohesion in recovery of fault strength. We present results from a series of slideâholdâslide tests on thin layers (â€10 đm) of ultrafine quartz gouge that develop during shearing of initially bareâsurface quartzite. Tests were conducted at 10 MPa constant pore pressure, 20â200 MPa constant effective normal stress, and temperatures of 22°â200°C. Restrengthening, defined as the difference between peak shear stress measured after resumption of sliding and steadyâstate sliding shear stress, increases with the log of hold duration. The 200°C healing rate, 0.014 per eâfold increase in time, is comparable to that determined from seismological observations along the Calaveras Fault, California. Construction of MohrâCoulomb failure envelopes shows that changes in cohesion are small (<1 MPa) and independent of hold durations to 105 s, indicating that the increased strength is due to changes in the friction coefficient. These experimental results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that cohesive healing explains the depth independence of earthquake stress drop, but higher temperatures, longer timeâscales, and more complex mineralogy could facilitate cohesive healing in natural fault systems.