EGU2020-21705
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21705
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Viscous heating triggers strain localization: Experimental evidence

Claudio Madonna1, Yury Podladchikov2, and Jean-Pierre Burg3
Claudio Madonna et al.
  • 1Structural Geology and Tectonics Group, Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. (claudio.madonna@erdw.ethz.ch)
  • 2Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 3Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Strain localization is a natural deformation process that has been variously attributed to brittle, chemical or geometrical precursors. Despite some theoretical consideration, experimental evidence for temperature softening was lacking. We report thermally-activated strain localization in prismatic samples of homogenous and isotropic glassy polymer. Uniaxial compression was performed at room temperature and at different but constant displacement rates while the temperature was captured with an infrared camera. Results show temperature increase due to viscous heating along planar zones before any rupture along these zones. We validated the experimental results with a thermo-mechanical numerical model. This experimental investigation extrapolated to geological conditions shows that viscous heating can induce strain localization in all levels of deforming lithosphere.

How to cite: Madonna, C., Podladchikov, Y., and Burg, J.-P.: Viscous heating triggers strain localization: Experimental evidence, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-21705, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21705, 2020

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