Residual stress in diopside: insight into localized transient high stress in seismogenic faults in the lower crust, Lofoten, Norway

Pseudotachylytes in the metamorphosed anorthosites of the Lofoten archipelago, Norway, preserve a record of seismic rupture in dry lower crust at temperatures and pressures of 650–750 °C and 0.8 GPa. Transient gigapascal-level stresses are suggested from microstructural evidence, however such high stresses have not been quantified. In this contribution, we combine microstructural analysis with the mapping of heterogeneity in residual stress in diopside from a lower-crustal pseudotachylyte from Nusfjord (Lofoten) using high-angular resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HR-EBSD). We aim to elucidate the deformation processes that led to this residual stress and to its spatial heterogeneity in the diopside grains.

The diopside contains micro-to nanoscale deformation twins within 3 mm of the fault and in clasts in the pseudotachylyte. Within clasts, the diopside lattice strongly undulates, indicating crystal plasticity at high driving stress. Residual stress heterogeneity ranges between ∼200 MPa and ∼800 MPa for in-plane normal stress, with greater values occurring closer to and in the pseudotachylyte. This trend is not apparent for the in-plane shear stress, which has residual stress heterogeneity between ∼150 and ∼250 MPa, not correlating with distance to the fault. The greatest residual stresses are present in a clast that exhibits lattice distortion resulting from dislocation glide. Mechanical twins, lattice undulations, and the distribution patterns of residual stress are truncated by coseismic fractures, suggesting that the microstructures and residual stress are the result of stress build-up prior to slip.

Given the extreme spatial localization of the residual stress heterogeneity, we conclude that it results from deformation occurring during earthquake rupture propagation. Despite high temperatures during frictional heating, thermal pressure did not contribute significantly to the residual stress. The behaviour of diopside as a stress recorder is influenced by mechanical twins: stress build-up in diopside may have partially dissipated by the formation of twins, and twins also appear to affect the residual stress, in particular shear stress.