Dry and Wet Friction of Plagioclase: Pure Cataclastic Flow(CF) vs. CF with Concurrent Pressure Solution

Abstract:

To distinguish different deformation mechanisms at hydrothermal conditions, friction experiments of plagioclase under nominally dry conditions were compared with that at hydrothermal conditions documented in a previous study[He et al.,2013]. Preliminary result[Tan and He, 2008] shows that the rate dependence of plagioclase under confining pressure of 150MPa and nominally dry conditions is velocity strengthening at temperatures of 50-600^oC, in contrast to the full velocity weakening at hydrothermal conditions. Here a) we conducted data fitting to the rate and state friction law to compare with the hydrothermal case; b) microstructural comparison was performed to understand the difference between the dry and wet conditions in the operative deformation mechanisms. The evolution effect (b value) under dry conditions exhibits much smaller values than that at wet conditions, and in contrast to the increasing trend at wet conditions, b values under dry conditions have a decreasing trend as temperature increases, from ~0.007 at 300^oC down to 0 at 600^oC. The direct effect (a value) at dry conditions has a peak of ~0.01 at 300^oC and decreases to a level of 0.007-0.008 at higher temperatures, in contrast to the increasing trend seen at hydrothermal conditions. In the dry case, microstructure at temperatures of 300-600^oC transitions gradually from a fabric characterized by localized Riedel shear zones to pervasive shear deformation, with the grain size reduced to a level of 1-3 micron in a submicron matrix in the latter case, corresponding to a lower porosity. The close association between porosity evolution and that of state variable revealed in previous studies[Morrow and Byerlee, 1989; Marone et al.,1990] suggests that the porosity change contributes largely to the evolution effect in addition to plasticity at intergranular contacts, probably due to gradual switching between different densities of packing. Our dry experiments indicate a cataclastic flow where the evolution effect may be controlled by the porosity change, and the direct effect may be controlled by cataclasis. Comparing the dry and hydrothermal results reveals that intergranular pressure solution is predominant during the shearing process at hydrothermal conditions with a much stronger evolution effect that increases with temperature above 300 ^oC.