Release of mineral-bound water prior to subduction tied to shallow seismogenic slip off Sumatra

Andre Hüpers; Marta E Torres; Satoko Owari; Lisa C McNeill; Brandon Dugan; Timothy J Henstock; Kitty L Milliken; Katerina E Petronotis; Jan Backman; Sylvain Bourlange; Farid Chemale Jr; Wenhuang Chen; Tobias A Colson; Marina C G Frederik; Gilles Guèrin; Mari Hamahashi; Brian M House; Tamara N Jeppson; Sarah Kachovich; Abby R Kenigsberg; Mebae Kuranaga; Steffen Kutterolf; Freya L Mitchison; Hideki Mukoyoshi; Nisha Nair; Kevin T Pickering; Hugo F A Pouderoux; Yehua Shan; Insun Song; Paola Vannucchi; Peter J Vrolijk; Tao Yang; Xixi Zhao

doi:10.1126/science.aal3429

Release of mineral-bound water prior to subduction tied to shallow seismogenic slip off Sumatra

Science. 2017 May 26;356(6340):841-844. doi: 10.1126/science.aal3429.

Authors

Andre Hüpers¹, Marta E Torres², Satoko Owari³, Lisa C McNeill⁴, Brandon Dugan⁵, Timothy J Henstock⁴, Kitty L Milliken⁶, Katerina E Petronotis⁷, Jan Backman⁸, Sylvain Bourlange⁹, Farid Chemale Jr¹⁰, Wenhuang Chen¹¹, Tobias A Colson¹², Marina C G Frederik¹³, Gilles Guèrin¹⁴, Mari Hamahashi¹⁵, Brian M House¹⁶, Tamara N Jeppson¹⁷, Sarah Kachovich¹⁸, Abby R Kenigsberg¹⁹, Mebae Kuranaga²⁰, Steffen Kutterolf²¹, Freya L Mitchison²², Hideki Mukoyoshi²³, Nisha Nair²⁴, Kevin T Pickering²⁵, Hugo F A Pouderoux²⁶, Yehua Shan¹¹, Insun Song²⁷, Paola Vannucchi²⁸, Peter J Vrolijk²⁹, Tao Yang³⁰, Xixi Zhao³¹

Affiliations

¹ MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Post Office Box 330 440, D-28334 Bremen, Germany. [email protected].
² College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, 104 CEOAS Administration Building, Corvallis, OR 97331-5503, USA.
³ Department of Earth Sciences, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba City 263-8522, Japan.
⁴ Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton S014 3ZH, UK.
⁵ Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
⁶ Bureau of Economic Geology, 1 University Station, Box X, Austin, TX 78713, USA.
⁷ International Ocean Discovery Program, Texas A&M University, 1000 Discovery Drive, College Station, TX 77845, USA.
⁸ Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁹ Laboratoire GeoRessources, CNRS-Université de Lorraine-CREGU, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie, Rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, TSA 70605, 54518, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
¹⁰ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geologia, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, 93.022-000 São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 511 Kehua Street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640, P.R. China.
¹² School of Earth Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley 6009, Australia.
¹³ Center for Regional Resources Development Technology (PTPSW-TPSA), Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), Building 820, Earth System Technology (Geostech), Kawasan Puspitek Serpong, South Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia 15314, Indonesia.
¹⁴ Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Borehole Research Group, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
¹⁵ Geophysics Research Group, Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, Geological Survey of Japan (AIST), AIST Tsukuba Central 7, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan.
¹⁶ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, Vaughan Hall 434, 8675 Discovery Way, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1215 West Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Geography Planning and Environmental Management, Level 4, Building 35, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
¹⁹ Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, 503 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
²⁰ Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University, 1677-1 Yoshida, Yamaguchi City 753-8512, Japan.
²¹ GEOMAR, Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, Kiel 24148, Germany.
²² School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3XQ, UK.
²³ Department of Geoscience, Shimane University, 1060 Nishikawatsu-cho, Matsue, Shimane 690-8504, Japan.
²⁴ CLCS/Marine Geophysical Division, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Earth System Science Organization, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Headland Sada, Vasco-da-Gama, Goa 403804, India.
²⁵ Earth Sciences, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
²⁶ CNRS, UMR6118 - Geosciences Rennes, University de Rennes I, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
²⁷ Geologic Environmental Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral (KIGAM), 124 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34132, Korea.
²⁸ Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Royal Holloway University of London, Queens Building, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
²⁹ New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, USA.
³⁰ Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, 5 Minzu Daxue Nanlu, Hiadian District, Beijing 100081, P.R. China.
³¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.

PMID: 28546210
DOI: 10.1126/science.aal3429

Abstract

Plate-boundary fault rupture during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman subduction earthquake extended closer to the trench than expected, increasing earthquake and tsunami size. International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 362 sampled incoming sediments offshore northern Sumatra, revealing recent release of fresh water within the deep sediments. Thermal modeling links this freshening to amorphous silica dehydration driven by rapid burial-induced temperature increases in the past 9 million years. Complete dehydration of silicates is expected before plate subduction, contrasting with prevailing models for subduction seismogenesis calling for fluid production during subduction. Shallow slip offshore Sumatra appears driven by diagenetic strengthening of deeply buried fault-forming sediments, contrasting with weakening proposed for the shallow Tohoku-Oki 2011 rupture, but our results are applicable to other thickly sedimented subduction zones including those with limited earthquake records.