Evolution des propriétés physiques des sédiments et des zones de failles du front de déformation à la zone sismogène : cas de la marge de Nankai

This study is focused on the upper limit of the seismogenic zone in the Kumano transect of the Nankai margin in relation with the construction of the wedge. The first step was to determine the stress orientations and amplitude within the wedge from borehole breakouts analysis. We show the striking presence of a trench normal extension zone behind the splay fault in a wedge dominated by a strike-slip stress regime. Locally an extensional stress regime is also observed in the slope sediment of the outer part of the wedge. In a second part of this work, we used porosity corrected from water bound to clay minerals to study the compaction state of the sediments and to quantify the amount of erosion in the slope sediments. Results also highlight the existence of past erosion related to the activity of the splay fault. In a third part, the observation of deformation style within sediments showed that erosion could explain the distribution of dilatant and compactive structures within the wedge. Finally, we show, based on mechanical modeling, that the splay fault slow slip rate over the last million year, and the presence of an extension zone landward of the splay fault, could both be explained by a pause in the accretion and a weak decollement beneath the outer wedge.