Energy taken up by coseismic chemical reactions during a large earthquake: An example from the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake

摘要

Frictional heat in a fault zone during earthquake slip transiently induces chemical reactions that may use energy released during the earthquake. We estimated the energy used by such reactions (E_C) by a numerical analysis incorporating frictional heat, thermal diffusion, chemical kinetics, and energy conservation, and found that E_C has an auto-feedback effect that inhibits temperature rise in fault zone. During the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake, estimated E_C was 0.43 MJ/m~2, corresponding to 0.79% of the frictional heat generated. This low percentage probably reflects the low initial concentrations of reactive materials. However, in the case of a fault with abundant reactive materials, E_C could reach >50% of the frictional heat and the auto-feedback effect could be large. At this case E_C is a nonnegligible component on earthquake energy budget and can affect fault mechanics. Citation: Hamada, Y., T. Hirono, W. Tanikawa, W. Soh, and S.-R. Song (2009), Energy taken up by cseismic chemical reactions during a large earthquake: An example from the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake, Geophys.