The torsional shear strength of granodiorite and dunite under near-homogeneous confining stress to about 90 kbar, 2

Room-temperature torsional-shear strengths of 1.27-cm-diameter × 0.25-cm-high disks of Nevada Test Site “Hardhat” granodiorite and a Mt. Burnette, Alaska, dunite were determined to about 90 kbar. Tests, for the most part, were run under linearly increasing pressure at constant rates of applied twist: about 3–30° at 5.73 · 10⁻⁴–10⁻² degr./sec for granodiorite, and 18° at 5.73 · 10⁻³ and 10⁻² degr./sec for dunite. Transitions are observed in the rate of shear-strength change for the granodiorite at about 15, 35 and 80 kbar. Minor and recoverable instabilities in strength occur over the pressure range 15–80 kbar. Beyond about 80 kbar, the shear strength increases sharply and is terminated with a strain-release of explosion-like violence. Strain rate showed some influence on strength and magnitude of energy-release at higher pressures. Residual microstructures showed that, below 15 kbar, intragranular extensional fracturing, intergranular sliding, and bulk consolidation mainly occur. Between 15 and 35 kbar, intragranular undulatory extinction, random and crystallographic ruptures, and initial intragranular slip are observed. The predominant mechanisms between 35 and 80 kbar are an increasing frequency of intragranular slip, and networks of short, irregular, intragranular ruptures. Bulk fracturing and faulting were not observed. Samples stressed to explosion-like failure showed extensive crystal fragmentation, and series of parallel bands. Alternate bands were birefringent and isotropic, respectively, and extended over a considerable part of the samples. Dunite showed a transition from diminishing to increasing shear strength at about 80 kbar, but no explosion-like release of strain energy to 95 kbar. Comparative data to 70 kbar also are given for a slightly serpentinized dunite, a granite, a gneiss, three extrusive porphyries, and a marble. X-ray diffraction powder patterns of all stressed samples revealed only a broadening of peaks and a reduction of intensities from higher levels of stress.