Mineralogy and magnetic properties of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw 7.6) slip zone and their implications

During an earthquake, the physical and the chemical transformations along a slip zone lead to alteration and formation of minerals within the gouge layer of a mature fault zone. The gouge contains magnetic minerals, which could be formed under the combined action of friction heat and fluid. Thus, gouge has the capacity to behave as a magnetic recorder during an earthquake. This constitutes a conceivable way to identify earthquakes slip zones. Besides, altered and neoformed magnetic minerals can be used as tracers of some earthquake processes. In this study, we investigate the rock magnetism and paleomagnetism of the Chelungpu fault gouge that hosts the principal slip zone of the Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw 7.6, 1999, Taiwan) using Taiwan Chelungpu-fault Drilling Project (TCDP) hole-B core samples. We also took a Chelungpu fault outcrop sample for identification of nanoparticle, which associated with fracture energy estimation in fault gouge.