Transformation-induced faulting requires an exothermic reaction and explains the cessation of earthquakes at the base of the mantle transition zone
Transformation-induced faulting requires an exothermic reaction and explains the cessation of earthquakes at the base of the mantle transition zone
复制标题
转变引起的断层作用需要放热反应,并解释了地幔过渡带底部地震的停止
DOI:
10.1016/0040-1951(95)00164-6
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发表时间:
1996
期刊:
影响因子:
2.9
通讯作者:
Yi Zhou
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
H. Green;Yi Zhou
In many subduction zones, earthquakes occur continuously to the bottom of the mantle transition zone and stop abruptly at the endothermic phase change marking the top of the lower mantle, suggesting cause and effect. New experiments on polycrystals undergoing the ilmenite ↔ perovskite transformation show that transformation-induced faulting occurs only in the exothermic direction of the reaction. The close structural and thermodynamic analogies between the transformation studied here in CdTiO3and those expected in the silicates of the earth's mantle argue strongly that these results are relevant to transformations occurring in subducting lithosphere. Moreover, consideration of the thermodynamics of this asymmetry show that this result should be a general phenomenon. If so, it follows that faulting by this mechanism cannot occur in the lower mantle, providing a natural explanation for the termination of earthquakes just before 700 km depth. If a ‘wedge’ containing metastable olivine exists at depth in subduction zones and is necessary for deep earthquakes, our results remove the constraint that this ‘wedge’ must taper to zero where the deepest earthquakes occur. The characteristics of the large deep earthquakes of 1994 and their aftershocks show that deep earthquakes can propagate beyond the zone of previous hypocenters and trigger aftershocks there, providing important new information about the mechanism of deep earthquakes and pointing to the need for additional experiments.