Estimation of slip parameters associated with frictional heating during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake by vitrinite reflectance geothermometry

To estimate the slip parameters and understand the fault lubrication mechanism during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake, we applied vitrinite reflectance geothermometry to samples retrieved from the Chelungpu fault. We found a marked reflectance anomaly of 1.30% ± 0.21% in the primary slip zone of the earthquake, whereas the reflectances in the surrounding deformed and host rocks were 0.45% to 0.77%. By applying a kinetic model of vitrinite thermal maturation together with a one-dimensional heat and thermal diffusion equation, we determined the shear stress and peak temperature in the slip zone during the earthquake to be 1.00 ± 0.04 MPa and 626°C ± 25°C, respectively. Taking into account the probable overestimation of the temperature owing to a mechanochemically enhanced reaction or flash heating at grain contacts, this temperature should be considered an upper limit. The lower limit was previously constrained to 400°C by studies of fluid-mobile trace-element concentrations and magnetic minerals. Therefore, we inferred that the peak temperature during the Chi-Chi earthquake was 400°C to 626°C, corresponding to an apparent friction coefficient of 0.01 to 0.06. Such low friction and the previous evidence of a high-temperature fluid suggest that thermal pressurization likely contributed to dynamic weakening during the Chi-Chi earthquake.