A new gas-medium, high-pressure and high-temperature deformation apparatus at AIST, Japan

In order to obtain information about the deformation and fluid-flow processes in seismogenic regions, we designed and constructed an original Japanese-type gas-medium deformation apparatus capable of achieving both high pressure and high temperature. The present apparatus can produce a basic environment in which the confining pressure reaches 200 MPa by argon gas, pore pressure reaches 200 MPa either by argon gas or water, and temperature reaches 800degreesC. We report a new gas-medium apparatus for rock deformation, presenting preliminary results as an example of test results.