Unraveling carbonate fault dynamics, from friction to decarbonation, through the 1959 Mw 7.2 earthquake in Montana
Nina Zamani, Michael A. Murphy, Eric C. Ferre, & Fabrice BarouPublished December 2025, SCEC Contribution #14800
Seismic rupture in carbonate rocks influences fault friction behavior through thermal evolution and
mineral reactions. Focusing on the 1959 Mw 7.2 Hebgen Lake event in western Yellowstone, Montana,
the largest earthquake on a normal fault in the United States, we analyze fault rock microstructures
and mineralogical changes to constrain frictional heating on the fault plane. We combine thermal
maturity of organic matter, magnetic fabric, and thermomagnetic methods with scanning electron
microscopy to unravel variations in peak frictional temperature along the fault slip surface. The mineral
changes caused by coseismic heating (e.g., nanocalcite formation or goethite to hematite reaction)
occur in patches along the fault mirror, hence reflecting considerable differences in frictional heat.
While coseismic thermal heterogeneities have been reported in other rock types, this is the first time
they are documented and quantified specifically in carbonates. Furthermore, these results provide
new mineralogical criteria to quantify coseismic frictional heat in natural faults at temperatures lower
than that of decarbonation and highlight the need to consider coseismic friction processes at a scale
larger than most deformation experiments. For example, we document the critical role played by fault
plane attitude (dip) at the scale of a few tens of centimeters in production of frictional heat. Our results
emphasize that while coseismic decarbonation dynamically weakens carbonate-hosted faults, it may
generally not occur along an entire fault plane.
Citation
Zamani, N., Murphy, M. A., Ferre, E. C., & Barou, F. (2025). Unraveling carbonate fault dynamics, from friction to decarbonation, through the 1959 Mw 7.2 earthquake in Montana. Scientific Reports, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89071-4.
