Seismic heating signatures in the Japan Trench subduction plate-boundary fault zone: evidence from a preliminary rock magnetic 'geothermometer'

Abstract

Frictional heating during earthquake rupture reveals important information on earthquake mechanisms and energy dissipation. The amount of annealing varies widely and is, as yet, poorly constrained. Here we use magnetic susceptibility versus temperature measurements during cycling to increasingly elevated temperatures to constrain the maximum temperature a slip zone has experienced. The case study comprises sheared clay cored from the Japan Trench subduction plate-boundary fault zone (décollement), which accommodated the large slip of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake. The décollement was cored during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 343, the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST). Heating signatures with estimated maximum temperatures ranging from ∼300 to over 500 °C are determined close to the multiple slip surfaces within the décollement. Since it is impossible to tie a specific slip surface to a certain earthquake, thermal evidence for the cumulative effect of several earthquakes is unveiled. This as yet preliminary rock magnetic ‘geothermometer’ would be a useful tool to detect seismic heating along faults that experienced medium temperature rise, a range which is difficult to assess with other approaches.