Effect of brittle fracture on the rheological structure of the lithosphere and its application in the Ordos

An empirical formula for the fracture strength of the principal rock type in the lithosphere is obtained based on the experimental data from previous studies, in which the effects of the confining pressure, size of the rock sample, temperature, strain rate and the pore pressure are taken into account, the empirical formulae for the effects of them are also presented. By comparing the frictional strength to the fracture strength calculated using the new empirical formula, it is shown that frictional sliding is dominant in the upper crust but brittle fracture is dominant in the lower part of the crust and the lithosphere beneath the crust. Therefore the fracture mechanism must be taken into account in the study of the rheological structure of the lithosphere. The empirical formula for the fracture strength is applied to study the rheological structure of the lithosphere in the Ordos block. Brittle regime in the rheological structure can be divided into two sub-regions, in one of which brittle fracture and in the other frictional sliding are dominant, respectively, unlike previous conventional studies in which frictional sliding is assumed to be the only factor; the magnitude of the rheological strength of the lithosphere calculated by the empirical formula is also lower than that obtained in previous conventional studies.