A Study on Mineralogical and Basic Mechanical Properties of Fault Gouges in 16 Faults, Korea

Because fault gouge developed at the center of fault is recognized as one of the most important weak sites, it is evident that clay mineralogy and physical properties greatly affect the rock stability. The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship of mineralogy and physical factors that control rock stability in fault zones. We analyzed a total of 51 samples from 16 main faults which were selected from a Korea fracture map, using XRD, SEM, and physical analyses like unit weight, friction and cohesion properties. Though it is considered that the most common clay minerals comprising fault gouge are kaolinite, illite and smectite, clay mineralogy slightly varies depending on lithology: illite > smectite > kaolinite and chlorite in volcanic rocks, kaolinite and chlorite > illite > smectite in sedimentary rocks, and illite > smectite > kaolinite and chlorite in abundance, respectively. Friction angle decreases with increasing clay content. Cohesion increases with increasing clay content below the 45 % region while it decreases with increasing clay content at the region higher than 45%, with some scatters in the data. It is likely that these results are ascribed to the physical heterogeneity of fault gouges with varying content of different clay minerals.