Crustal faults across geological settings are often enriched in phyllosilicates because of the hydrothermal alteration of wall rocks. The frictional behavior of these altered rocks at mid-crustal conditions remains poorly understood. Here, we show that mica-schist gouge under crustal hydrothermal conditions can host mixed behavior promoting shallow aseismic creep and confined seismic ruptures. We conduct triaxial deformation experiments on natural samples from the East Anatolian Fault, Turkey, and simulate the resulting dynamics on the Pütürge segment during seismic cycles using a physical model of rock friction and a realistic thermal structure. Mica schist exhibits potentially unstable weakening between 300° and 400°C, promoting depth-confined earthquakes. The frictional properties of mica schist are compatible with the 2020 moment magnitude (Mw) 6.8 Elazığ earthquake and the northern rupture arrest of the 2023 Mw 7.8 Kahramanmaraş event, illustrating how the thermal and lithological structure affects rupture style and segmentation.
Identifying diagnostic signatures of coseismic slip in the geological record is essential for constraining fault rheology and earthquake dynamics, yet unambiguous geological markers of past seismic ruptures are still scarce. Among seismic slip indicators, solidified frictional melt is widely regarded as the most reli...
L. Del Sole, L. Aldega, Liu-Zeng Jing et al.· Seismological Research Lette...· 0 citations
Crustal permeability can be created through microearthquakes as observed at field and laboratory scales. The respective roles of seismic and aseismic slip in governing permeability evolution remain ill‐constrained. Here, we present observations of controlled pore pressure stepping experiments designed to distinguish th...
Jun-Peng Wang, Muhammad Edo Nurshal, P. Yu et al.· Geophysical Research Letters· 0 citations
Identifying coseismic deformation along shallow faults is crucial for assessing seismic hazards associated with surface rupture and ground shaking, yet unequivocal evidence of seismic slip in carbonate-hosted faults remains uncertain. Active normal faults on Miyako Island in the southern Ryukyu arc (Japan) are hosted i...
Thomas Yeo, K. Ujiie, Kaoru Inoue et al.· Geology· 0 citations
Tectonic deformation on stagnant-lid planets reflects the interaction between long-lived lithospheric structures and evolving stress fields. Whether the ancient tectonic fabrics can localise present-day seismic failure under contemporary stress fields remains poorly tested by direct geophysical observations. Here we sh...
Jung-Hun Song, Doyeon Kim, F. Kolawole et al.· Nature Communications· 0 citations
Understanding how fault creep evolves in space and time is essential for identifying zones of aseismic stress release and stress accumulation. Creeping faults typically exhibit rate-strengthening friction, in which frictional resistance increases with sliding velocity and promotes stable slip. The northern Aceh segme...
R. Salman, S. Sathiakumar, Rishav Mallick et al.· Communications Earth & E...· 0 citations
The mechanism of Oligo–Miocene crustal deformation in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau has long been debated. The two widely cited models of rigid block extrusion and lower-crustal flow still show significant differences in explaining the rheological properties and deep geodynamic characteristics of the continental cru...
Xiao-Yu Chen, J. Wheeler, Jun-Lai Liu et al.· Geological Society of Americ...· 0 citations
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