High‐velocity frictional properties of gabbro

Abstract

High‐velocity friction experiments have been performed on a pair of hollow‐cylindrical specimens of gabbro initially at room temperature, at slip rates from 7.5 mm/s to 1.8 m/s, with total circumferential displacements of 125 to 174 m, and at normal stresses to 5 MPa, using a rotary‐shear high‐speed friction testing machine. Steady‐state friction increases slightly with increasing slip rate at slip rates to about 100 mm/s (velocity strengthening) and it decreases markedly with increasing slip rate at higher velocities (velocity weakening). Steady‐state friction in the velocity weakening regime is lower for the non‐melting case than the frictional melting case, due perhaps to severe thermal fracturing. A very large peak friction is always recognized upon the initiation of visible frictional melting, presumably owing to the welding of fault surfaces upon the solidification of melt patches. Frictional properties thus change dramatically with increasing displacement at high velocities, and such a non‐linear effect must be incorporated into the analysis of earthquake initiation processes.