Experimental friction data for simulated Nankai Trough gouges sheared under a range of effective normal stress and pore-fluid pressure conditions (NERC Grant NE/S015531/1)

The data are from a suite of friction experiments performed on simulated gouges from the Nankai Trough (Japan). The simulated gouges were prepared by crushing cuttings of Nankai accretionary sediments collected during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 358. The cuttings were crushed to produce a powder (i.e. simulated gouge) with a grain size of >125 microns. These simulated gouges were sheared under a range of effective normal stress (10-75 Mpa) and pore-fluid pressure (5-75 Mpa) conditions while the sliding velocity was stepped between 0.3 and 3 microns/s to calculated the rate-and-state friction parameter (a-b). The Nankai gouge are strongly rate-strengthening and become more rate-strengthening (i.e. more frictionally stable) at elevated pore-fluid pressure. In contrast, varying the effective normal stress has minimal effect on the frictional stability of the gouges.