Simultaneous observations of reaction kinetics, creep behavior, and AE activities during syndeformational antigorite dehydration at high pressures

Abstract:

Intermediate-depth earthquakes are seismic activities in Wadati-Benioff zone at depths from 60 km to 300 km, where subducting plates deform plastically rather than brittle failure. Although it has been reported that unstable faulting occurred during antigorite dehydration even at higher pressures than ~2 GPa (e.g., Jung et al., 2009), the recent study by Chernak and Hirth (2011) revealed that the syndefromational antigorite dehydration does not produces stick-slip instabilities but stable fault slip. In the present study, we newly developed an AE monitoring system for high-pressure reaction-deformation processes combined with D-DIA and synchrotron monochromatic X-ray to observe reaction kinetics, creep behaviors, and AE activities simultaneously. We applied this technique to investigate shear instability during syndeformational antigorite dehydration. High-pressure deformation experiments were conducted up to ~8 GPa, ~1050 K, and strain rates of 3.4-9.2 x 10^-5 s^-1 in compression using a D-DIA type apparatus installed at BL-04B1, SPring-8. 50 keV mono X-ray were used to measure reaction kinetics and stress-strain data. To monitor shear instabilities by detecting AEs, six piezoelectric devices were positioned between first and second stage anvils of MA 6-6 type system. We used three kinds of starting materials of polycrystalline antigorite, fine-grained forsterite polycrystal, and two-phase mixtures of antigorite and San Carlos olivine (10%, 30%, and 50%atg). Clear contrasts were observed in AE activities between forsterite and antigorite samples. AE activities detected within the forsterite polycrystal suggested (semi) brittle behaviors at low pressures during the cold compression stage.
Almost no AEs were detected within the antigorite samples during any stages of cold compression, ramping, deformation, and syndeformational dehydration although localized deformation textures were observed in recovered samples. Instead, we detected some AEs outside the sample, indicating the stick slipping at the boundaries of cylindrical parts. Our results suggest that localized deformation and dehydration of antigorite do not enhance shear instability at high pressures at least in compression under drained condition.