Transformational faulting in Mn2GeO4 from olivine to wadsleyite structure: Implications for physical mechanism of deep-focus earthquakes

High-pressure and temperature deformation experiments interfaced with acoustic emission (AE) monitoring have been conducted to study transformational faulting in Mn₂GeO₄ olivine, which transforms to the β phase, isostructural to wadsleyite. Metastable Mn₂GeO₄ olivine exhibits a marked embrittlement behavior at temperatures between 800 and 1100 K, emitting numerous AEs. At each temperature, brittle deformation is characterized by a two-stage process: (1) a “preparation” stage with numerous diffusedly located low-magnitude AEs and large b values (>2), and (2) a failure stage where larger-magnitude AEs form a planar distribution with b values about 1. Microstructure analysis reveals extensive kink band development in olivine grains in the recovered samples. Kink band boundaries (KBBs), with a typical thickness of ∼100 nm, are filled with a nanometric β-Mn₂GeO₄ “gouge”. A dense array of secondary shear localizations is often present within the kink bands, suggesting significant shear deformation therein. The combined observations suggest that faulting in metastable Mn₂GeO₄ olivine is a self-similar process, from grain-scale to the sample-scale. Both observed embrittlement behavior and the microstructure of metastable Mn₂GeO₄ olivine are essentially identical to those in Mg₂GeO₄ olivine we have reported previously, indicating that the physical mechanism of faulting in metastable olivine is insensitive to the specific crystallographic structure of the high-pressure phase. The low b values (about 1) observed in the faulting process in our experiments are similar to those of deep focus earthquakes in cold subduction zones. Our observed mechanism explains deep focus seismicity in cold metastable mantle wedges, provided that the self-similarity assumption holds to geological scales.