Rock magnetic expression of fluid infiltration in the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault (Longmen Shan thrust belt, China)

Abstract

Fluid infiltration within fault zones is an important process in earthquake rupture. Magnetic properties of fault rocks convey essential clues pertaining to physicochemical processes in fault zones. In 2011, two shallow holes (134 and 54 m depth, respectively) were drilled into the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault (Longmen Shan thrust belt, China), which accommodated most of the displacement of the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. Fifty-eight drill core samples, including granitic host rock and various fault rocks, were analyzed rock-magnetically, mineralogically, and geochemically. The magnetic behavior of fault rocks appears to be dominated by paramagnetic clay minerals. Magnetite in trace amounts is identified as the predominant ferrimagnetic fraction in all samples, decreasing from the host rock, via fault breccia to (proto-)cataclasite. Significant mass-losses (10.7–45.6%) are determined for the latter two with the “isocon” method. Volatile contents and alteration products (i.e., chlorite) are enriched toward the fault core relative to the host rocks. These observations suggest that magnetite depletion occurred in these fault rocks—exhumed from the shallow crust—plumbed by fluid-assisted processes. Chlorite, interpreted to result from hydrothermal activity, occurs throughout almost the entire fault core and shows high coefficients of determination (R2 > 0.6) with both low and high-field magnetic susceptibility. Close relationships, with R2 > 0.70, are also observed between both low and high-field magnetic susceptibility and the immobile elements (e.g., TiO2, P2O5, MnO), H2O+, and the calculated mass-losses of fault rocks. Hence, magnetic properties of fault rocks can serve as proxy indicators of fluid infiltration within shallow fault zones.