The Brittle-Plastic Transition in Quartz-Albite Mixtures: New Insights From Shear Deformation Experiments at Mid-to-Lower Crustal Depth Conditions

Abstract

Crustal strength is often characterized using a strength-depth profile where laboratory-derived friction and flow laws are connected at depth (i.e., the so-called “Christmas Tree” diagram). Large, destructive earthquakes frequently nucleate within the transition zone from a frictional-to-viscous deformation regime, which represents the strongest part of the crust. However, microscale deformation mechanisms controlling bulk frictional-to-viscous transitional behavior remain unclear. To investigate the deformation mechanisms, we conducted shear experiments on room-dry, powdered quartz-albite mixtures under upper- to mid-crustal pressure-temperature conditions using a Griggs-type deformation apparatus. We simulated depth conditions in the range 7–30 km, by varying temperatures and confining pressures (210–900°C and 185–870 MPa, respectively, by assuming 30°C/km and 2,700 kg/m3). To assess the rate dependence and stability of shear deformation, we sequentially stepped shear strain rates between ∼10−3/s and ∼10−4/s. At shallower depth conditions, friction coefficients follow Byerlee's law, while at greater depth conditions they deviate from it and strain weakening is observed. Post-mortem microstructures indicate changing deformation mechanisms with increasing simulated depths. The samples deformed at shallower depth conditions (<18 km) show a predominance of cataclastic grain comminution. At greater depth conditions (>24 km), nano-grains are observed, as well as polygonal quartz grains at the greatest depth condition (30 km). These results indicate that the controlling deformation mechanisms at the frictional-viscous transition zone are grain boundary sliding and dynamic recrystallization. We conclude that nano-scale deformation mechanisms govern the frictional-viscous transitional deformation in the upper crust, and propose their importance for understanding seismic rupture processes there.