Direct evidence of high pore pressure at the toe of the Nankai
accretionary prism
Abstract
The Nankai Trough is a locus of slow slip, low frequency earthquakes and
Mw>8 classical earthquakes. It is assumed that high pore
pressure contributes substantially to earthquake dynamics. Hence, a full
understanding of the hydraulic regime of the Nankai accretionary prism
is needed to understand this diversity of behaviors. We contribute to
this understanding by innovatively integrating the drilling and logging
data of the NanTroSEIZE project. We focus on the toe of the accretionary
prism by studying data from Hole C0024A drilled and intersected the
décollement at 813 mbsf about 3km away from the trench. Down Hole
Annular Pressure was monitored during drilling. We perform a careful
quantitative reanalysis of its variation and show localized fluid
exchange between the formation and the borehole (excess of 0.05m3/s),
especially in the damage zones at the footwall of the décollement. Pore
pressure was estimated using Eaton’s method on both drilling and sonic
velocity data. The formation fluids are getting significantly
over-pressurized only a few hundred meters from the toe of the
accretionary prism near the décollement with excess pore-pressure
(P*≈0.04–4.79MPa) and lithostatic load (λ≈88-0.96 & λ*≈0.1-0.62 )
contributing to maximum 62% of the overburden stress. The hydraulic
profile suggests that the plate boundary acts as a barrier inhibiting
upward fluid convection, as well as a lateral channel along the damage
zone, favouring high pore pressure at the footwall. Such high pressure
at the toe of the subsection zone makes high pressure probable further
down in the locus of tremors and slow slip events.