Fault-zone healing effectiveness and the structural evolution of strike-slip fault systems

Abstract

Numerical simulations of long-term crustal deformation reveal the important role that damage healing (i.e. fault-zone strengthening) plays in the structural evolution of strike-slip fault systems. We explore the sensitivity of simulated fault zone structure and evolution patterns to reasonable variations in the healing-rate parameters in a continuum damage rheology model. Healing effectiveness, defined herein as a function of the healing rate parameters, describes the post-seismic healing process in terms of the characteristic inter-seismic damage level expected along fault segments in our simulations. Healing effectiveness is shown to control the spatial extent of damage zones and the long-term geometrical complexity of strike-slip fault systems in our 3-D simulations. Specifically, simulations with highly effective healing form interseismically shallow fault cores bracketed by wide zones of off-fault damage. Ineffective healing yields deeper fault cores that persist throughout the interseismic interval, and narrower zones of off-fault damage. Furthermore, highly effective healing leads to a rapid evolution of an initially segmented fault system to a simpler through-going fault, while ineffective healing along a segmented fault preserves complexities such as stepovers and fault jogs. Healing effectiveness and its role in fault evolution in our model may be generalized to describe how heat, fluid-flow and stress conditions (that contribute to fault-zone healing) affect fault-zone structure and fault system evolution patterns. © 2011 The Authors Geophysical Journal International © 2011 RAS.