Shear heating and clumped isotope reordering in carbonate faults

and highly stressed/strained grain boundaries within the carbonate fault zone that can reduce the activation energy for diffusion, and thus lead to an increased rate of isotopic disordering during shear experiments. In our laboratory experiments the high stress and strain on grain contacts and the presence of nanograins thus allows for rapid disordering so that a change in Δ47 occurs in a very short and relatively low intensity heating events. In natural faults it may also lead to isotopic ordering after the cessation of frictional heating thus erasing the high temperature signature of Δ47.