Project description

The dynamics of the solid Earth, e.g., the initiation of plate tectonics, the strength of plate boundaries, and the formation and evolution of mountains, is directly controlled by the chemical and physical action of water. In the shallow (brittle) part of the lithosphere, fluid pressure counteracts the lithostatic pressure and weakens faults. At greater depth, the chemical activity of water makes rocks plastically weaker, and is also responsible for metamorphic reactions that induce weakening. Fluids have been invoked to explain observations of tremor and slow slip at depth, and a large fraction of crustal seismicity is attributed to upward fluid flow, inducing earthquake swarms.

Yet we still have very few quantitative constraints on either fluid pressure or chemical activity of water at depth in the lithosphere. In addition, fluid pressure and transport are coupled to deformation, and the mechanisms by which fluids induce fault slip and seismicity are not well understood: crustal fluids are very mobile, and rock physical properties evolve in response to both fluid-rock interactions and deformation.

The aim of this project is to identify and quantify the coupled mechanical, hydraulic and chemical processes occurring across the lithosphere, from slow creep to rapid earthquake slip, and determine the role played by fluids on deep and shallow seismicity, slow slip, and long-term evolution of plate boundaries.

To answer these questions, we develop experimental methods that allow us to measure hydro-mechanical properties of rocks during deformation and long-term chemically-assisted healing processes, and integrate laboratory results in fault slip simulations.

Project duration

2024 -

Funding agencies

ERC Consolidator Grant "RockDeath" (2024-2029)

Past funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council  (2018-2021) and The Leverhulme Trust (held at UCL).