Fault rocks associated with the reservoir-triggered seismicity of the Koyna-Warna area (India)

In 1962, the Kyona Dam was completed in a rural area 250 km southeast of Mumbai (India), primarily for hydropower generation. Since then, the area, which was essentially devoid of natural seismicity, has been affected by a sequence of moderate to large magnitude earthquakes, including the one of December 11^th, 1967 (M_L6.3, 177 casualties), the largest human-induced earthquake so far. Major earthquakes (M_L>4) are modulated by basin-filling and emptying operations, which follow the monsoon regime with peak rainfall between July and September. There are two peaks of seismicity: the first between August and September (“rapid-response”), corresponding to the rainy season, and the second in February (“delayed-response”) corresponding to the dry season. The M_L>3 earthquakes have normal to strike-slip focal mechanisms, reactivate steeply-dipping faults/fractures, and are located between 3 and 10 km depth in the granitoid Indian basement (2.7-2.6 Ga) buried beneath the 0.5-2 km thick Deccan basaltic lava flows (68-60 Ma). The temperature at hypocentral depths is estimated to be between 80 and 200°C. Especially the delayed-response seismicity implies poro-elastic effects, also related to the percolation of water from the surface to hypocentral depths. To study the seismicity of the area, a large deep drilling project was completed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (India) which includes nine wells down to 1.5 km depth and a pilot well down to 3 km depth. Here we describe the fault rocks (mylonites, cataclasites, breccia and faults/fractures filled by epidote, quartz, chlorite and calcite veins) collected in boreholes KBH1, KBH6 and KBH7.

Visual analysis of the cores plus mineralogical, microstructural and geochemical investigations (X-ray powder diffraction; scanning electron microscope equipped with Wavelength-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy) allowed us to reconstruct the sequence of deformation events. Steeply-dipping faults/fractures filled by chlorite and calcite are the last deformation event as they cut through all other structural features. We recognized eight types of chlorites based on optical properties, crosscutting relations and chemical composition. The temperature of formation of the chlorite spans from 350°C (or HT-chlorite found in the shear zones cut by the Deccan basaltic dykes), to 200°C<T<250°C (or LT-chlorite filling fault/fractures cut by calcite veins, but with uncertain crosscutting relations with Deccan basaltic dykes), and 130°C<T<135°C (or Very-LT-chlorite filling fault/fractures, which are also cut by calcite veins, and cut the Deccan basaltic dykes). LT- and Very-LT-chlorite formation temperatures were estimated with the Bourdelle & Cathelineau (2015) chlorite geothermometer. The range of 130°C<T<250°C for chlorite formation, which can be extended to lower temperatures considering that these faults/fractures are cut by calcite veins, overlaps with the one (80°C<T<200°C) estimated at the hypocentral depths of the Koyna-Warna area. Moreover, these fault/fractures found in the boreholes are hosted in steeply-dipping fault/fractures (or sub-parallel to the structures illuminated by the hypocentral distributions), and are filled by minerals precipitated from percolating fluids (i.e., consistent with the evidence of delayed-response seismicity). We conclude that the faults/fractures currently reactivated by reservoir-triggered seismicity most likely correspond to those filled by calcite and LT- to Very-LT chlorites found in the deep boreholes.