Fault slip and fault names This section reviews basic fault nomenclature.

The diagram shows the basic fault-slip parameters. The blue arrow indicates the right-hand rule strike, the green arrow dip. Thehangingwall is the fault block above the fault plane; the footwall is the fault block below the fault plane. Figure 1: Fault slip

Fault heave and throw can be deceptive because: Heave and throw only show one component of fault slip. A fault with a small heave or throw could have a large amount of strike-slip movement. Vertical throw is very different from stratigraphic throw. This distinction may be very important in directional drilling.

Figure 2: Vertical throw vs. stratigraphic throw

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Basic fault names based on slip direction. Fault names indicate the rake of the movement direction of the hangingwall. Rake is the angle of the hangingwall slip-vector measured in the fault plane. There are many different rake notations, but this website measures rake from the dip vector. Positive rakes are clockwise (as seen looking down on the fault plane) and rake can range either from +180 to -180 or from 0-360 depending on your preference. I prefer the +180 to 180 scheme because rakes with absolute values <90 indicate normal slip, >90 indicate reverse slip, positive rakes indicate right-lateral movement, and negative rakes indicate left-lateral movement. The next diagram shows how fault names relate to the hangingwall-slip rake. The diagram looks perpendicularly down onto the fault plane. The green arrow is the dip-vector; the blue arrow is the right-hand rule strike. In normal usage faults with slip-vectors lying within 10-15 of the dip or strike orientation (not direction) are termed normal/reverse or right-/left-lateral faults, respectively. Faults with slip-vectors outside of these ranges are given compound names. The vertical or horizontal slip component of a vertical or horizontal fault is named arbitrarily. Right-lateral vs. left-lateral. Imagine that you are standing on one side of a steeply dipping fault as it moves. If objects on the opposite block appear to be moving to your right, then the fault has a right-lateral component. If objects on the opposite block appear to be moving to your left, then the fault has a left-lateral component. The apparent movement is the same whether you are standing on the hangingwall or footwall. Figure 3: The fault name describes the rake of the slip vector.

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Special fault names. Geologists use many different names for special types of faults. These names have complex and far-reaching implications that depend to some extent on the user. When in doubt, use a simple name. Some important types of specialized fault names: Wrench vs. strike-slip fault. These terms are synonyms and indicate a fault with a slip-vector closely parallel to the fault strike. Some geologists reserve the term wrench for large, regional strike-slip faults, steeply-dipping regional strikeslip faults or as a synonym for tear fault. Thrust fault. This name once meant any reverse fault with a dip-angle of 30 or less. Now the term indicates faults with an originally low dip-angle that formed during regional compressional deformation. A single thrust fault may change its orientation as it crosscuts different lithologies. Folding can reorient thrusts so that they may have a variety of angles today. Detachment fault. A regional, low-angle, listric normal fault formed during crustal extension. Tear fault. Often used to indicate a steeply-dipping wrench fault that bounds or cuts the hangingwall of a thrust or normal fault, also used for mode III faults.

Fault Types in a Nutshell

The three basic fault types along with their parts A fault is a large crack in the Earth's crust where one part of the crust has moved against another part. This movement means that faults prove the Earth is an active place. They are signs of powerful forces deep underground. The parts of a fault are (1) the fault plane, (2) the fault trace, (3) the hanging wall and (4) the footwall. The fault plane is where the action is. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping. The line it makes on the Earth's surface is the fault trace. Where the fault plane is sloping, the upper side is the hanging wall and the lower side is the footwall. When the fault plane is vertical, there is no hanging wall or footwall. Any fault plane can be completely described with two measurements: its strike and its dip. Thestrike is the direction of the fault trace on the Earth's surface. The dip is the measurement of how steeply the fault plane slopesif you dropped a marble on the fault plane, it would roll exactly down the direction of dip. It's important to know a fault's type: normal, reverse or strike-slip. The type reflects the kind of forces that are acting on the fault. Normal faults form when the hanging wall drops down. The forces that create normal faults are pulling the sides apart, or extensional. Reverse faults form when the hanging wall moves up. The forces creating reverse faults are compressional, pushing the sides together. Together, normal and reverse faults are called dip-slip faults, because the movement on them occurs along the dip directioneither down or up, respectively. Strike-slip faults have walls that move sideways, not up or down. That is, the slip occurs along the strike, not up or down the dip. In these faults the fault plane is usually vertical, so there is no hanging wall or footwall. The forces creating these faults are lateral or horizontal, carrying the sides past each other. Strike-slip faults are either right-lateral or left-lateral. That means someone standing near the fault trace and looking across it would see the

U.S. Geological Survey image

far side move to the right or to the left, respectively. The one in the picture is left-lateral. In reality, many faults show a combination of dip-slip and strike-slip motion. Geologists use more sophisticated measurements to analyze these fault movements. The Natural Fractures site has a page with more rigorous detail on these. You can judge a fault's type from looking at the focal mechanism diagrams of earthquakes that occur on itthose are the "beachball" symbols you'll often see on earthquake sites.