Stabilization of fault slip by fluid injection in the laboratory and in situ
Abstract
Faults can slip seismically or aseismically depending on their hydromechanical properties, which can be measured in the laboratory. Here, we demonstrate that fault slip induced by fluid injection in a natural fault at the decametric scale is quantitatively consistent with fault slip and frictional properties measured in the laboratory. The increase in fluid pressure first induces accelerating aseismic creep and fault opening. As the fluid pressure increases further, friction becomes mainly rate strengthening, favoring aseismic slip. Our study reveals how coupling between fault slip and fluid flow promotes stable fault creep during fluid injection. Seismicity is most probably triggered indirectly by the fluid injection due to loading of nonpressurized fault patches by aseismic creep.
Additional Information
© 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). Submitted 7 June 2018; Accepted 30 January 2019; Published 13 March 2019. We thank M. Violay and J. Hazzard for fruitful discussions and P. Segall and one anonymous reviewer for constructive comments. The research presented in this paper is supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) through the "HYDROSEIS" project under contract no. ANR-13-JS06-0004-01. F.C. was partially supported by the Institut Universitaire de France, and by the French government, through the UCAJEDI Investments in the Future project managed by the ANR with reference no. ANR-15-IDEX-01 at the Université Côte d'Azur. Laboratory experiments have been funded by ERC grant no. 259256 GLASS to C.C. and Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant no. 656676 FEAT to M.M.S. Author contributions: All authors contributed to the data analysis, discussions and interpretations of results, and writing of the article. F.C. conceived the original idea, led the study, conducted the in situ experiment, and developed the hydromechanical modeling. M.M.S. and C.C. conducted the laboratory experiments and data processing. Y.G. conducted the in situ experiment and data processing. J.-P.A. contributed to the model development and analysis of data and modeling results. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors. Data are also housed in the Géoazur laboratory, Université Côte d'Azur, France (email: cappa@geoazur.unice.fr).Attached Files
Published - eaau4065.full.pdf
Supplemental Material - aau4065_SM.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC6415952
- Eprint ID
- 94017
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190321-083801765
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
- ANR-13-JS06-0004-01
- Institut Universitaire de FranceInstitut Universitaire de France
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR)
- ANR-15-IDEX-01
- European Research Council (ERC)
- 259256 GLASS
- Marie Curie Fellowship
- 656676 FEAT
- Created
-
2019-03-21Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2022-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Center for Geomechanics and Mitigation of Geohazards (GMG), Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Seismological Laboratory