Chapter Seven

7. Fault Systems
Contents
• Introduction to fault system
• Fault anatomy and Fault geometry
• Classification of faults or Types of faults
• Recognition of faults
• Faults and the Principal Stresses
• An introduction to extensional system
(Rifting)
• An introduction to Strike slip fault system
• An introduction to Reverse fault system

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 7.1 Introduction to fault system
Faults: are fractures or zones of localized deformation that accommodate
movement parallel to the fracture surface /plane.
They produced usually by earth quakes.
• It may be hundreds of kms or a few centimeters in length.

Understanding faults is basically useful in:-

• design for long-term stability of dams, bridges, buildings and power
plants.
• Searching for groundwater resource, earthquake zone, …etc
There are three styles of faulting:
1)Faults: Brittle fractures along which measurable displacement has
occurred.
2)Fault zone: Displacement on several brittle surfaces within a definable
width.
3)Ductile shear zone: Ductile structures along which displacement occurs
without mesoscopic loss of cohesion. It involves cataclasis or crystal plastic
deformation.
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 7.2 Fault anatomy and Fault geometry

 Fault Dip Geometry and Angles:

a) Listric (shovel shaped) fault is

a curved, concave upward fault.
• It is gently dipping

b) Planar
Shallow- <300
Moderate- 300-600
Steep >600

c) Anastomosing fault, which

is branching and re-joining of
network of irregular surface.
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Orientation of fault plane Strike line
of imerscctlon

Faults are planar structures measured by

the strike and dip of fault plane
• Strike - orientation of a horizontal line
in a plane. (Expressed as a compass
direction)

• Dip - angle between a tilted

surface and a horizontal
Strike -
plane. 30° dip angle

(Expressed as an angle and

direction)

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Parts of fault and Terminology
• Fault plane: Surface that the movement
has taken place within the fault.
• Hanging wall: The rock mass resting on
the fault plane.
• Footwall: The rock mass beneath the
fault plane.
Slip: Describes the movement parallel to
the fault plane.
• Dip slip: Describes the up and down
movement parallel to the dip direction of
the fault.
• Strike slip: Applies where movement is
parallel to strike of the fault plane.
• Oblique slip: Is a combination of strike
slip and dip slip.
• Net slip (true displacement): Is the total
amount of motion measured parallel to
the direction of motion

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Fault Kinematics and Terminology
• Separation: The amount of apparent
offset of a faulted surface, measured in
specified direction. There are strike
separation, dip separation, and net
separation.
• Strike separation is the apparent
displacement as measured parallel to the
strike of fault.
• Dip separation is the dip displacement
of actual , and observed vertical section
perpendicular to the fault.
• Pitch (rake) is the angle between
displacement vector and the strike of
fault.
• Heave: The horizontal component of dip
separation.
• Throw: The vertical component dip
separation.

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 7.3 Classification of faults or Types of faults
A. Faults are classified in terms of the attitude of the fault
surface:-
• High angle > 45° dip
• Low angle < 45° dip
B. In terms of orientation of relative displacement or slip
faults are:
• Dip slip faults –slip parallel to the fault dip
• Strike slip faults- slip parallel to the strike of the fault
• Oblique slip faults- slip inclined obliquely to the fault
surface
C. Rotational faults –Due to curved fault surface (rotation
axis parallel to the surface) or perpendicular.
The latter produces hinge (scissor) faults
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 We further subdivide faults in terms of relative movement along
the slip faults:-
Dip slip faults:
 Normal faults- hanging wall block moves down with respect to
footwall
 Reverse fault- hanging wall moves up with respect to footwall

Strike slip faults

 Right lateral (dextral)- fault block across the fault from the
observer moves to the right
 Left lateral (sinistral)- fault block across the fault from the
observer moves to the left

Oblique slip faults

 Sinistral normal (dextral normal)
 Dextral normal (dextral reverse)
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 A normal fault is a high angle, dip-slip fault on which the hanging-wall
has moved down relative to the footwall.
 A normal fault brings younger rocks over older ones. Because of the
separation of geological horizons, normal faults are also termed extension
faults.

 A reverse fault is a dip-slip fault on which the hanging-wall has moved

up and over the footwall.
 Consequently, old rocks lay over younger ones. Such faults produce a
repetition or overlap of a geological horizon and are accordingly termed
compression fault.

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 Antithetic vs. Synthetic faults

• Synthetic faults are dipping the same direction to primary

(main) fault.
• Antithetic faults are dipping opposite direction to the primary
(main) fault.

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 Horsts and grabens
 Morphologically, they are well defined as elongate depressions
bounded by normal faults.
 Extension of the earth crust is compensated by downward
movement of the hanging wall block.
Footwall
block Hanging-wall
block
• Horst - two normal faults dip
away from each other, block Horst
between them is elevated Horst
(uplifted fault).
Graben
Graben
• Graben - two normal faults
dip towards each other, block
between them drops down.
(“graben” is a German word for
“ditch”), Structural Geology For Geologist by Bishaw Tensional stress
 Strike-slip faults usually have very steep or vertical dips and the relative
movement between the adjacent blocks is horizontal, parallel to the strike
of the fault plane.
• Large strike-slip faults are referred to as transcurrent faults and wrench
faults.

 The terms sinistral (left-lateral) and dextral (right-lateral) describe

the sense of the strike-slip displacement.
• A fault is sinistral if, to an observer standing on one block and
facing the other, the opposite block is displaced to his left.
Conversely, the fault is dextral if the movement is to the right.
• Oblique-slip faults. A fault which has a component of dip-slip and
a component of strike-slip is termed an oblique-slip fault.
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 7.4 Recognition of faults

There are three broad criteria to recognize faults:

A. Structural Features that are intrinsic to faults
themselves (on faulted rocks)
B. Effects of faulting on geologic or stratigraphic
units
C. Effects on physiographic features that are the
indicators of faulted surface

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 Cont…
A. Structural Features of that are intrinsic to faults
themselves- on faulted rocks
• polishing and grooving
• Slickensides/ Slickenlines
• breccia
• gouge
• mylonite
• shear zone
• associated fractures
• drag of layers adjacent to fault
• juxtaposition of dissimilar rock types
• displacement of planar structures

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 Cont…
• The variation between Gouge, Breccia, and Mylonite on surface
of fault trace is variation with depth of fault zones.
• It is categorized into two major class as:-Non-cohesive Fault
Rocks and Cohesive Fault Rocks)

 Non-cohesive Fault Rocks-

"fragmental" composed of
broken materials, disaggregate
easily, unless cemented or
compacted (1-4 km depth)
• Gouge: fine grained, <1.0
mm, unconsolidated.
• Breccia: > 1.0 mm to several
meters.

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 Cont…

 Cohesive Fault Rocks:

• Fragmental rocks, but dense
and cohesive (4-10km).
• Fragments are sharp, angular
and internally fractured.
 Pseudotachylite is a fault rock that
has the appearance of
the basaltic glass, tachylyte.
 Mylonite: (10-15 km) Cohesive
fault rock: these are rocks brittle-
ductile rock fractures into clasts
or ground into powder during
deformation.

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 Cont…

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 Cont…
Where exposed, fault planes
commonly are; smooth, polished
surfaces-slickensides
•formed in response to shearing
along the fault plane.
•Fault surfaces with slickensides
typically contain oriented linear
features- slickenside lineations or
slickenlines or striations which are all
parallel to the slip direction.

• Mineral fibers or slickenfibers-

long, single crystal mineral fibers
that grow parallel to the direction
of displacement.
• The fill gaps developed along the
fault during gradual shearing.
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 Cont…

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B. Effects of faulting on geologic or stratigraphic units
 Interpreting faults from boreholes (normally vertical) and using
Stratigraphy in map interpretation of faults.
E.g. [thrust faults repeat section -normal faults have missing section

 Displacement along faults places adjacent to one another rocks

that do not belong together in ordinary geologic sequence.
• This causes omission or repetition of strata.

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C. Effects on physiographic features that are the indicators
of faulted surface
• fault scarp
• fault-line scarps
• triangular facets
• alignment of facets
• increase of stream gradients at the fault line
• hanging valleys
• aligned springs and vegetation
• landslides
• displaced stream courses

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 Cont…
 The Effects on physiographic features: creation of fault line scarps
by differential erosion along a fault surface
Fault Scarp

The figure shows the Erosional fault scarps, A)

faulting produces a fault scarp, B) Erosion of valleys
in the fault scarp produces flatirons
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Cont…
Stream channel fault indicators

Slip plane
Photo: by Bishaw M.
at key afer, 2014.

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 7.5 Faults and the Principal Stresses
Principal Stress Axes
• σ1- bisects the acute angle between the conjugate shear fractures
• σ2- defined by the intersection of a pair of conjugate shear fractures
• σ3- bisects the obtuse angle between the conjugate shear fractures.

Anderson’s Theory of Faulting

• Normal Faults: σ1 is vertical, σ2 & σ3 are horizontal; σ3 bisects the obtuse angle
• Reverse Faults: σ3 is vertical, σ1and σ2 are horizontal, σ1 bisects the acute angle
• Strike-slip faults: σ2 is vertical, σ1& σ3 are horizontal; σ3 bisects the obtuse angle
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Mohr’s circle Stress and Normal Faulting

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Mohr’s circle Stress and Reverse Faulting

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 7.6 An introduction to extensional system (Rifting)
• They are formed due to cause of extension or lengthening of the
earth’s crust before the opening of a new ocean basin. This processes
is called rifting
 The General Occurrence of Rift Environments
 Mid-Ocean Ridges
 Back-Arc Basins
 Continental Rifts
 Pull-Apart Basins
• Formation of Rift Systems- under tension on New or Reactivated
faults.
• One of the tectonic environments in which normal faults occur as
predominant structures is a continental rift.
 A rift system is a tectonically interconnected series of rifts
• Common association with volcanism, high heat flow, anomalous
crust and upper mantle structure and seismicity
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• Associated Structures formed due
to rifting are:
• Normal faults
• Reverse Drag Folds, Roll Over
Folds and Accommodation Zones
(Transfer Faults)
• Horst and Graben basins, etc.

Characteristics of reverse drag folds

• They Could form symmetrical or
asymmetrical rifts (grabens and half
grabens)
• Have moderate to steep dip (mostly
at 60°)

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•Rifts are graben associated with
diverging plate boundaries,
either along mid-oceanic ridges
or on continents.

.
• Drag folds: form because of friction along the fault surface and
occur along normal faults. They are produced as units appear to be
pulled into a fault during movement.
• Monocline: an inclined surface grading along strike into a fault
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The main component of extensional fault system

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Mantle-activated, "active" rifting
In response to thermal upwelling of asthenosphere where the causative stresses
are associated with lateral thermal density variations in the lithosphere and
asthenosphere.
• In this model, lithosphere is thermally thinned by:
-heating and absorption into asthenosphere
-necking in response to extension
Doming ----volcanism----rifting.
Lithosphere-activated ”Passive rifting”
In response to regional stress field assumed to originate from plate boundary
forces. In this model, lithosphere is thinned only in response to extension.
Rifting----uplift----volcanism

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 The main process of Wilson cycle, and Rifting development
1.Rifting of continents by mantle diaprism
2. Continental drift, sea floor spreading and formation of ocean basins
3. Progressive closure of ocean basins by subduction of oceanic
lithosphere
4. Continental collision and final closure if ocean basins

Reasons for studying rifts

1. Rifting is one of the two fundamental tectonic processes
affecting the continents. The other is collision
2. Rifting adds material to the lithosphere and recycles mantle
lithosphere back into the convecting upper mantle
3. Through igneous processes, it provides a window into the
physical and chemical state of the mantle
4. It is associated with resources
5. Rifts are sites of natural hazards (volcanism, earthquakes)
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 7.7 An introduction to Strike slip fault system
• Strike slip faults: faults in which movement is parallel to the strike of the
fault
• Transform faults –form segments of plate boundaries.
In the ocean floors, they connect different ridge segments whereby they
connect zones of extension (ridges).
• Transcurrent faults- regional strike slip faults in continental crust that is
not part of the plate margin.
Characteristics of strike slip faults
-Most SS- faults are approximately planar and vertical at least near the
surface of the earth
-As a result, surface traces tend to be straight even across rugged
topography
-The topographically high side of a strike slip fault commonly changes from
one side to the other along the fault trace due to:
•dip slip components
•Juxtaposition of rocks that differ in resistance to erosion
•Horizontal separation
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• Contractional structures include stylolites, cleavages, folds and reverse faults, and form in
restraining bends. The restraining bend is located where a sinistral fault steps to the
right. It’s called contractional strikeslip duplexes

• Releasing bends form where a sinistral strike-slip fault steps to the left, or a dextral fault
steps to the right. It’s called extensional strike-slip duplexes.
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 7.8 An introduction to Reverse fault system
• Reverse (thrust) faults are dip slip faults on which the hanging wall
block has moved up relative to the footwall block.
• They accommodate shortening of the crust
Reverse >45°
Thrust <45°
• Displacement varies from the order of millimeters to thousands of
kilometers.
• A hanging wall block above a low angle thrust is called a thrust
sheet or nappe ( sheet in French)
• A thrust sheet that has moved a large distance and is geologically out
of place is an allochton and the rocks in it allochtonous.
• Erosion of a thrust sheet that lies above a shallowly dipping fault
commonly leaves an isolated remnant of allochton called a klippe.

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 Thrust Fault

Thrust faults usually formed in

areas of comperssional
regime.

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 Recognition of thrust faults
• They characteristically emplace older rocks on the top of
younger rocks.
• On a vertical section, stratigraphy is generally duplicated.
• Plutonic or high grade metamorphic rocks are generally
associated with deeper structural levels than unmetamorphosed or
low grade rocks.
• Their occurrence above low grade or unmetamorphosed rocks
indicates an inverted sequence, suggesting a thrust.
• Allochtonous rocks of deep water origin (e.g shale, cherts) on top
of shallow water or continental sediments (e.g limestone,
sandstone)
• Highly deformed rocks overlying slightly deformed or
undeformed rocks. E.g. folded rocks over unfolded rocks

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 Two Major Types of Thrust Faults: Thin versus Thick-Skinned
• Thick: Faults cut into basement
• Thin: Basal or sole fault (decollement) of thrust system glides above
basement.
• Sedimentary cover is involved in faulting and basement slides beneath but
is uncut by the thrusts. But since shortening must be taken up somewhere,
basement is involved (unless the thrust system is due to a landslide).
Mostly we discuss thin-skinned systems

Thin-Skinned Thrust Systems or Fold and

Thrust Belts
• A complex and well studied system, Thin-
skinned thrust systems consist of a basal
detachment or decollement, or sole thrust. and
more steeply dipping thrusts or imbricate
thrusts (combined into imbricate fans) that
branch off from the basal thrust.
• Bedding-step thrusting: Faults consist of flats
parallel to bedding (surface of weakness) and
ramps where the fault cuts across the bedding.
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Folds Associated with Thrust
Faulting
These concepts are best developed
in association with thrusting but
can occur in any fault system.
• Fault Bend Folds: Form when
layers move from flat to ramp
or visa versa. Because layers
must conform to changing fault
geometry, a fold forms.
Drag and Drape Folds ( b & d)
above
Detachment Folds: Folding of a
layer due to shortening above a
detachment or decollement

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