Mayuko Shimizu

Pelagic smectite as an important factor in tsunamigenic slip along the Japan Trench

The very large slip on the shallow portion of the subduction interface during the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (M w 9.0) caused a huge tsunami along the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan. In order to elucidate the mechanics of such tsunamigenic slip, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 343 (Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project, JFAST), was carried out one year after the earthquake and succeeded in recovering rocks constituting the active plate boundary fault. Our mineralogical analyses using X-ray diffraction reveal that the shallow portion of the fault zone that caused the earthquake is significantly enriched in smectite compared to the surrounding sediments, which may be intimately linked to the tsunamigenic shallow faulting. For comparison, we also analyzed mineralogical features of incoming sediments just prior to subduction, recovered on the outer rise of the Japan Trench (Site 436, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 56), and found a characteristic smectite-rich horizon in the uppermost ∼5 m of the pelagic clay layer. This horizon should be mechanically weak and will become the future plate boundary fault, as observed in the JFAST cores. The smectite-rich deposits are broadly distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, and may therefore potentially enhance conditions for large shallow slip during earthquakes that occur over a broad area of the Japan Trench plate boundary, which would result in large tsunamis for this region.

Hydrogeological responses to incoming materials at the erosional subduction margin, offshore Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Bulk mineral assemblages of sediments and igneous basement rocks on the incoming Cocos Plate at the Costa Rica subduction zone are examined by X-ray diffraction analyses on core samples. These samples are from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 334 reference Site U1381, ∼ 5 km seaward of the trench. Drilling recovered approximately 100 m of sediment and 70 m of igneous oceanic basement. The sediment includes two lithologic units: hemipelagic clayey mud and siliceous to calcareous pelagic ooze. The hemipelagic unit is composed of clay minerals (∼50 wt.%), quartz (∼5 wt.%), plagioclase (∼5 wt.%), calcite (∼15 wt.%) and ∼30 wt.% of amorphous materials, while the pelagic unit is mostly made up of biogenic amorphous silica (∼50 wt.%) and calcite (∼50 wt.%). The igneous basement rock consists of plagioclase (∼50–60 wt.%), clinopyroxene (∼>25 wt.%), and saponite (∼15–40 wt.%). Saponite is more abundant in pillow basalt than in the massive section, reflecting the variable intensity of alteration. We estimate the total water influx of the sedimentary package is 6.9 m3/yr per m of trench length. Fluid expulsion models indicate that sediment compaction during shallow subduction causes the release of pore water while peak mineral dehydration occurs at temperatures of approximately ∼100°C, 40–30 km landward of the trench. This region is landward of the observed updip extent of seismicity. We posit that in this region the presence of subducting bathymetric relief capped by velocity weakening nannofossil chalk is more important in influencing the updip extent of seismicity than the thermal regime.