Yohei Hamada

Changes in illite crystallinity within an ancient tectonic boundary thrust caused by thermal, mechanical, and hydrothermal effects: an example from the Nobeoka Thrust, southwest Japan

Illite crystallinity (IC), the full width at half maximum of the illite (001) peak in clay-fraction X-ray diffraction (XRD), is a common geothermometer widely applied to various tectonic settings. Paleotemperature estimation using IC presents methodological ambiguity because IC is not only affected by background temperature but also by mechanical, hydrothermal, and surface weathering effects. To clarify the influences of these effects on IC in the fault zone, we analyzed the IC and the illite 001 peak intensity of continuous borehole core samples from the Nobeoka Thrust, a fossilized tectonic boundary thrust in the Shimanto Belt, the Cretaceous-Paleogene Shimanto accretionary complex in southwest Japan. We also carried out grinding experiments on borehole core samples and sericite standard samples as starting materials and investigated the effect of mechanical comminution on the IC and illite peak intensity of the experimental products. We observed the following: (1) the paleotemperatures of the hanging wall and footwall of the Nobeoka Thrust are estimated to be 288°C to 299°C and 198°C to 249°C, respectively, which are approximately 20°C to 30°C lower than their previously reported temperatures estimated by vitrinite reflectance; (2) the fault core of the Nobeoka Thrust does not exhibit IC decrease; (3) the correlation of IC and illite peak intensity in the hanging wall damage zone were well reproduced by the grinding experiment, suggesting that the effect of mechanical comminution increases toward the fault core and; (4) the abrupt increase in IC value accompanied by high illite peak intensity is explained by hydrothermal alterations including plagioclase breakdown and the formation of white micas. Our results indicate that IC has potential for quantifying the effects of mechanical comminution and hydrothermal alteration within a fault zone.

Contrasts in physical properties between the hanging wall and footwall of an exhumed seismogenic megasplay fault in a subduction zone—An example from the Nobeoka Thrust Drilling Project

[1]xa0We examined the physical properties of an exhumed and fossilized subduction zone megasplay fault by analyzing geophysical logging data obtained by the Nobeoka Thrust Drilling Project, which provide a high-resolution transect of properties across the main fault zone. The footwall cataclasite exhibits higher averages of neutron porosity (∼7.6%) and lower values of electric resistivity (∼232 Ωm) compared to the hanging wall phyllite (∼4.8%, ∼453 Ωm). This clear contrast between the hanging wall and footwall may account for the difference in maximum burial and structural variation. Despite the contrast observed between the hanging wall and footwall in macroscopic scale, the resistivity and porosity data from both the hanging wall and footwall can be fit with a single curve using Archies law, suggesting the similarities in microstructures and mineralogy in this low porosity range. Above the main fault core of the Nobeoka Thrust a brittle damage zone in the hanging wall contains pseudotachylyte as evidence of the seismogenic slip and does not follow Archies law. Damage zones in the hanging wall are also observed in the modern splay fault at shallow depth in the Nankai Trough but with much thicker width, whereas the footwall damage zone is more extensive in the Nobeoka Thrust. Splay faults may exhibit strong deformation in the hanging wall in the early stage, and as fault rocks get buried deeper and as displacement and physical property contrast increase across the fault, the damage effect may eventually be enlarged in the footwall.

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.

Multiple damage zone structure of an exhumed seismogenic megasplay fault in a subduction zone - a study from the Nobeoka Thrust Drilling Project

To investigate the mechanical properties and deformation patterns of megathrusts in subduction zones, we studied damage zone structures of the Nobeoka Thrust, an exhumed megasplay fault in the Kyushu Shimanto Belt, using drill cores and geophysical logging data obtained during the Nobeoka Thrust Drilling Project. The hanging wall, composed of a turbiditic sequence of phyllitic shales and sandstones, and the footwall, consisting of a mélange of a shale matrix with sandstone and basaltic blocks, exhibit damage zones that include multiple sets of ‘brecciated zones’ intensively broken in the mudstone-rich intervals, sandwiched by ‘surrounding damage zones’ in the sandstone-rich intervals with cohesive faults and mineral veins. The fracture zones are thinner (2.7 to 5.5xa0m) in the sandstone-rich intervals and thicker in the shale-dominant intervals (2.3 to 18.6xa0m), which indicates a preference of coseismic slip and velocity-weakening in the former, and aseismic deformation in the latter. However, the surrounding damage zones observed in the current study are associated with an increase in resistivity, P-wave velocity, and density and a decrease in porosity, inferring densification and strain-hardening in the sandstone-rich intervals and strain-weakening in the mudstone-rich intervals. These observations indicate that the sandstone-rich damage zones may weaken in the short term but may strengthen in the geologically long term, contributing to a later stage of fault activity. In contrast, the mudstone-rich damage zones may strengthen in the short term but develop weak structures through longer time periods. The observed shear zone thickness in the hanging wall is thinner (2.3 to 18.6xa0m) compared to the footwall damage zones (12 to 39.9xa0m), possibly because faults in the hanging wall were concentrated and partitioned between the preexisting turbiditic sequence of alternating shale/sandstone-dominant intervals, whereas in the footwall, faults were more sporadically distributed throughout the sandstone block-in-matrix cataclasites. A splay fault may evolve and be characterized by physical property contrasts, the lithology dependence of deformation, and the variability of damage zone thickness due to a heterogeneous lithology distribution in the hanging wall and footwall. The deformation patterns observed in the Nobeoka Thrust provide insights to the strain-hardening/weakening behaviors of sediments along megathrusts over geological timescales.

Estimation of slip rate and fault displacement during shallow earthquake rupture in the Nankai subduction zone

Enormous earthquakes repeatedly occur in subduction zones, and the slips along megathrusts, in particular those propagating to the toe of the forearc wedge, generate ruinous tsunamis. Quantitative evaluation of slip parameters (i.e., slip velocity, rise time and slip distance) of past slip events at shallow, tsunamigenic part of the fault is critical to characterize such earthquakes. Here, we attempt to quantify these parameters of slips that may have occurred along the shallow megasplay fault and the plate boundary décollement in the Nankai Trough, off southwest Japan. We apply a kinetic modeling to vitrinite reflectance profiles on the two fault rock samples obtained from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). This approach constitutes two calculation procedures: heat generation and numerical profile fitting of vitrinite reflectance data. For the purpose of obtaining optimal slip parameters, residue calculation is implemented to estimate fitting accuracy. As the result, the measured distribution of vitrinite reflectance is reasonably fitted with heat generation rate Q˙

Stress rotations and the long-term weakness of the Median Tectonic Line and the Rokko-Awaji Segment

left(dot{Q}right)

Correction to “A chemical kinetic approach to estimate dynamic shear stress during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake”

and slip duration (tr) of 16,600xa0J/s/m2 and 6,250xa0s, respectively, for the megasplay and 23,200xa0J/s/m2 and 2,350xa0s, respectively, for the frontal décollement, implying slow and long-term slips. The estimated slip parameters are then compared with previous reports. The maximum temperature, Tmax, for the Nankai megasplay fault is consistent with the temperature constraint suggested by a previous work. Slow slip velocity, long-term rise time, and large displacement are recognized in these fault zones (both of the megasplay, the frontal décollement). These parameters are longer and slower than typical coseismic slip, but are rather consistent with rapid afterslip.

Alteration and dehydration of subducting oceanic crust within subduction zones: implications for decollement step-down and plate-boundary seismogenesis

We present a quantitative examination of the liberation and subsequent deposition of silica at the subduction zone plate interface in the Mugi mélange, an exhumed accretionary complex in the Shimanto Belt of southwest Japan. Frequency and thickness measurements indicate that mineralized veins hosted in deformed shales make up approximately 0.4% of the volume of this exposure. In addition, whole-rock geochemical evidence suggests that the net volume of SiO2 liberated from the mélange at temperatures of <u2009200°C was as much as 35%, with up to 40% of the SiO2 loss related to the smectite-illite (S-I) conversion reaction, and the rest attributable to the pressure solution of detrital quartz and feldspar. Kinetic modeling of the S-I reaction indicates active liberation of SiO2 at approximately 70°C to 200°C, with peak SiO2 loss at around 100°C, although these estimates should be slightly shifted toward lower temperature conditions based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses of mixed-layer S-I in the Mugi mélange. The onset of pressure solution was not fully constrained, but has been documented to occur at around 150°C in the study area. The deposition in deformed shales of quartz liberated by pressure solution and the S-I reaction is probably linked to seismogenic behavior along the plate interface by (1) progressively enhanced velocity-weakening properties, which are favorable for unstable seismogenic faulting, including very-low-frequency earthquakes and (2) increasing intrinsic frictional strength, which leads to a step-down of the plate boundary décollement into oceanic basalt.