On the restoration of strength through stress-driven healing of faults in ice

Abstract New experiments have revealed that stress-driven healing of faults in saline ice, when confined under biaxial compressive stress of σh = 60–750 kPa for a period from th = 3 s to 18 h at a temperature from −30 to −3° C, restores compressive strength to the body. The strength increases with confinement, time and temperature, scaling as σ h t h n exp ( − n Q / R T ) where n = 0.29 ± 0.02 and Q = 50 ± 6 kJ mol−1. A model of the restoration is developed in terms of creep of asperities that interact across the plane of the fault and is applied to healing of the arctic sea ice cover.