At low-temperature and high-stress conditions, quartz deformation is controlled by the kinetics of dislocation glide, often referred to as low-temperature plasticity (LTP). To investigate the relationship between intracrystalline H2O content and the yield strength of quartz during LTP, we have integrated spherical and Berkovich nanoindentation tests at room temperature on natural quartz grains from a deformed migmatitic gneiss with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements of intracrystalline H2O content. Dry (<20 wt ppm H2O) and wet (20–100 wt ppm H2O) crystals exhibit comparable indentation hardness, which is proportional to quartz yield strength. Thus, quartz yield strength, seems to be unaffected by the intracrystalline H2O content. Pre-indentation strain history may have had a major role in generating a high density of dislocation sources, which controlled the yield stress during LTP.

Seismic rupture in strong, anhydrous lithologies of the lower continental crust requires high failure stress, in the absence of high pore fluid pressure. Several mechanisms proposed to generate high stresses at depth imply transient loading driven by a spectrum of stress changes, ranging from highly localised stress amplifications to crustal-scale stress transfers. High transient stresses up to GPa magnitude are proposed by field and modelling studies, but the evidence for transient pre-seismic stress loading is often difficult to extract from the geological record due to overprinting by coseismic damage and slip. However, the local preservation of deformation microstructures indicative of crystal-plastic and brittle deformation associated with the seismic cycle in the lower crust offers the opportunity to constrain the progression of deformation before, during and after rupture, including stress and temperature evolution. Here, detailed study of pyroxene microstructures characterises the short-term evolution of high stress deformation and temperature changes experienced prior to, and during, lower crustal earthquake rupture. Pyroxenes are sampled from pseudotachylyte-bearing faults and damage zones of lower crustal earthquakes recorded in the exhumed granulite facies terrane of Lofoten, northern Norway. The progressive sequence of microstructures indicates localised high-stress (at the GPa level) preseismic loading accommodated by low temperature plasticity, followed by coseismic pulverisation-style fragmentation and subsequent grain growth triggered by the short-term heat pulse associated with frictional sliding. Thus, up to GPa-level transient high stress leading to earthquake nucleation in the dry lower crust can occur in nature, and can be preserved in the fault rock microstructure.