Landslides, Ice Quakes, Earthquakes: A Thermodynamic Approach to Surface Instabilities

The total rate of rock deformation results from competing deformation processes, including ductile and brittle mechanisms. Particular deformation styles arise from the dominance of certain mechanisms over others at different ambient conditions. Surprisingly, rates of deformation in naturally deformed rocks are found to cluster around two extremes, representing coseismic slip rates or viscous creep rates. Classical rock mechanics is traditionally used to interpret these instabilities. These approaches consider the principle of conservation of energy. We propose to go one step further and introduce a nonlinear far-from-equilibrium thermodynamic approach in which the central and explicit role of entropy controls instabilities. We also show how this quantity might be calculated for complex crustal systems. This approach provides strain-rate partitioning for natural deformation processes occurring at rates in the order of 10-3 to 10-9 s-1. We discuss these processes using examples of landslides and ice quakes or glacial surges. We will then illustrate how the mechanical mechanisms derived from these near-surface processes can be applied to deformation near the base of the seismogenic crust, especially to the phenomenon of slow earthquakes.

[1]  Erik Rybacki,et al.  High‐strain creep of feldspar rocks: Implications for cavitation and ductile failure in the lower crust , 2008 .

[2]  B. Hobbs,et al.  Earthquakes in the ductile regime? , 1986 .

[3]  F. De Carlo,et al.  Creep cavitation can establish a dynamic granular fluid pump in ductile shear zones , 2009, Nature.

[4]  Victor C. Tsai,et al.  Analysis of glacial earthquakes , 2007 .

[5]  L. Onsager.  Reciprocal Relations in Irreversible Processes. II. , 1931 .

[6]  E. Aifantis,et al.  On the direct interactions between heat transfer, mass transport and chemical processes within gradient elasticity , 2007 .

[7]  P. Glansdorff,et al.  Thermodynamic theory of structure, stability and fluctuations , 1971 .

[8]  Chen Ji,et al.  Stress changes from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and increased hazard in the Sichuan basin , 2008, Nature.

[9]  G. Dresen,et al.  Creep of polycrystalline anorthite and diopside , 2003 .

[10]  Klaus Regenauer-Lieb,et al.  Positive feedback of interacting ductile faults from coupling of equation of state, rheology and thermal-mechanics , 2004 .

[11]  S. Fernbach,et al.  Properties of matter under unusual conditions , 1970 .

[12]  A. Chrysochoos,et al.  Thermographic analysis of thermomechanical couplings , 1992 .

[13]  Alexander M. Puzrin,et al.  Principles of Hyperplasticity: An Approach to Plasticity Theory Based on Thermodynamic Principles , 2010 .

[14]  J. Rice.  Inelastic constitutive relations for solids: An internal-variable theory and its application to metal plasticity , 1971 .

[15]  L. Jolivet,et al.  Grain-size-sensitive flow and shear-stress enhancement at the brittle–ductile transition of the continental crust , 2001 .

[16]  J. Morris.  Stronger, Tougher Steels , 2008, Science.

[17]  K. Regenauer-Lieba,et al.  Modeling shear zones in geological and planetary sciences : solid-and fluid-thermal – mechanical approaches , 2003 .

[18]  Phil Attard,et al.  Theory for non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. , 2006, Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP.

[19]  D. Yuen,et al.  Quasi-adiabatic instabilities associated with necking processes of an elasto-viscoplastic lithosphere , 2000 .

[20]  Russell Robinson,et al.  Synthetic seismicity models of multiple interacting faults , 1995 .

[21]  John R. Rice,et al.  Crustal Earthquake Instability in Relation to the Depth Variation of Frictional Slip Properties , 1986 .

[22]  H. Gardner,et al.  Can linguistic competence be dissociated from natural language functions? , 1975, Nature.

[23]  A. Karrech,et al.  A unified multi-scale thermodynamical framework for coupling geomechanical and chemical simulations , 2010 .

[24]  Y. Ben‐Zion,et al.  A viscoelastic damage rheology and rate- and state-dependent friction , 2005 .

[25]  A. Chrysochoos,et al.  Experimental Analysis of Thermomechanical Coupling by Infra-Red Thermography , 1991 .

[26]  D. Yuen,et al.  Modeling shear zones in geological and planetary sciences: solid- and fluid-thermal-mechanical approaches , 2003 .

[27]  R. Clausius,et al.  Ueber verschiedene für die Anwendung bequeme Formen der Hauptgleichungen der mechanischen Wärmetheorie , 1865 .

[28]  Yuri Y. Podladchikov,et al.  Generation of intermediate-depth earthquakes by self-localizing thermal runaway , 2009 .

[29]  Laurent Jolivet,et al.  Mechanics of low‐angle extensional shear zones at the brittle‐ductile transition , 2004 .

[30]  David A. Yuen,et al.  Quartz Rheology and Short-time-scale Crustal Instabilities , 2006 .

[31]  Youqing Yang,et al.  Parallel computing of multi-scale continental deformation in the Western United States: Preliminary results , 2007 .

[32]  J. Birchler,et al.  Slicing and Dicing for Small RNAs , 2008, Science.

[33]  Anderson,et al.  Frictional melting during the rupture of the 1994 bolivian earthquake , 1998, Science.

[34]  J. Boatwright,et al.  Earthquake source mechanics , 1986 .

[35]  Ioannis Vardoulakis,et al.  Thermoporomechanics of creeping landslides: The 1963 Vaiont slide, northern Italy , 2007 .

[36]  G. Schubert,et al.  Initiation of ice ages by creep instability and surging of the East Antarctic ice sheet , 1982 .

[37]  J. Dieterich.  Modeling of rock friction: 1. Experimental results and constitutive equations , 1979 .

[38]  Masaki Ogawa,et al.  Shear instability in a viscoelastic material as the cause of deep focus earthquakes , 1987 .

[39]  Y. Ben‐Zion,et al.  Scaling relations of earthquakes and aseismic deformation in a damage rheology model , 2008 .

[40]  Guy T. Houlsby,et al.  Application of thermomechanical principles to the modelling of geotechnical materials , 1997, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[41]  T. Poulet,et al.  PreMDB, a thermodynamically consistent material database as a key to geodynamic modelling , 2009 .

[42]  Mahdi Motagh,et al.  Combination of Precise Leveling and InSAR Data to Constrain Source Parameters of the Mw = 6.5, 26 December 2003 Bam Earthquake , 2006 .

[43]  D. E. Carlson,et al.  An introduction to thermomechanics , 1983 .

[44]  J. Boehler,et al.  Anisotropy and Localization of Plastic Deformation , 1991 .

[45]  D. Yuen,et al.  Multiscale Brittle-Ductile Coupling and Genesis of Slow Earthquakes , 2008 .

[46]  A. Lin.  Seismic Slip in the Lower Crust Inferred from Granulite-related Pseudotachylyte in the Woodroffe Thrust, Central Australia , 2008 .

[47]  James H. Dieterich,et al.  Modeling of rock friction: 2. Simulation of preseismic slip , 1979 .

[48]  G. Schubert,et al.  Explosive growth of shear-heating instabilities in the down-slope creep of ice sheets , 1986 .

[49]  Byung Chan Eu,et al.  Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes , 1995 .

[50]  D. Sornette,et al.  Slider block friction model for landslides: Application to Vaiont and La Clapière landslides , 2002, cond-mat/0208413.

[51]  Alan T. Linde,et al.  A slow earthquake sequence on the San Andreas fault , 1996, Nature.

[52]  B. Evans,et al.  Strength of the lithosphere: Constraints imposed by laboratory experiments , 1995 .