Potential Role of Volcanic Glass‐Smectite Mixtures in Slow Earthquakes in Shallow Subduction Zones: Insights From Low‐ to High‐Velocity Friction Experiments

Abstract

Volcanic glass and its mixture with smectite are commonly observed in shallow parts of subduction zones. As volcanic glass layers often act as glide planes in submarine landslides, and because its alteration product, smectite, is one of the frictionally weakest geological materials, the frictional characteristics of volcanic glass‐smectite mixtures are important for fault slip behavior in shallow parts of subduction zones. We performed a series of friction experiments on volcanic glass‐smectite mixtures with different smectite contents from 0% to 100% at various velocity conditions from 10 μm/s to 1 m/s under an effective normal stress of 5 MPa and pore pressure of 10 MPa. In general, apparent friction coefficients negatively depend on the smectite content at any velocity tested. We found that samples with smectite contents of 15%–30% showed a drastic slip‐weakening behavior at intermediate velocities of 1–3 mm/s. Finite element method modeling shows that thermal pressurization does not contribute to the observed weakening behavior. The critical nucleation length estimated from the slip‐weakening behavior is approximately 1–10 km, which is large enough to prevent the slip to accelerate to seismic slip velocity. Therefore, gouges with minor amount of clay, such as subducting volcanic ash layers, may contribute to the occurrence of the slow earthquakes at shallow depths in subduction zones.

Plain Language Summary

Materials erupted from volcanoes deposit on the seafloor and subduct at the trench. One such material, volcanic glass, easily alters into mechanically weak clay minerals such as smectite that can cause an enormous slip during an earthquake in subduction zones. In this study, we experimentally examined the frictional properties of mixtures of volcanic glass and smectite to elucidate fault slip behavior at shallow depths of subduction zones. Experiments with varying smectite content showed that a drastic reduction in fault frictional strength was induced when a small amount of smectite was present at moderately high velocity conditions. This behavior may induce slow earthquakes in shallow subduction zones.

Key Points

• Small amount of clay minerals in volcanic glass induces a drastic slip‐weakening at ∼1 mm/s

• Thermal processes do not contribute to the weakening behavior

• Slip weakening and large critical nucleation length at intermediate slip velocities might cause slow earthquakes