Effects of strain- vs. strain-rate-dependent faults weakening for continental corner collision: insight from 3D thermomechanical models

Geological and geophysical observations have highlighted the multi-stage deformation history of the continental lithosphere. Such inherited heterogeneities, observed from microscopic to kilometre-scales, lead to important mechanical weakening for the subsequent development of orogens. This strain-weakening may be frictional (fault gauge, filled veins), ductile (banding, recrystallisation, etc) or caused by changes in grain-size, and largely determines the response of the lithosphere to stresses (Bercovici & Ricard, 2014). Representing the microstructural weakening mechanisms with the relatively low resolution of regional and global numerical modelling studies has been a longstanding challenge. Mechanisms are often grouped into an “effective” plastic strain weakening implementation, where the frictional strength decreases with increasing accumulated strain. Alternatively, materials can be modelled to weaken depending on the local strain-rate (Ruh et al., 2014), which is characteristic for e.g. coseismic frictional weakening of faults. Here we show key differences of strain- vs. strain-rate-dependent faults weakening in terms of orogenic strain propagation patterns in numerical models of a corner collision setting, based on the eastern corner of the India-Eurasia collision. The numerical model I3ELVIS (Gerya & Yuen, 2007) consists of a finite-difference, marker-in-cell method coupled to a diffusion-advection-based finite-difference surface process model, FDSPM (Munch et al., 2022). We highlight key differences between the results of a model with strain-rate-dependent weakening, and a model with conventional strain-dependent weakening based on accumulated strain. The former shows significantly sharper shear zones, as well as a higher number of thrust faults that are relatively evenly spaced, which is more realistic in natural collision zones. 

 

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