Faults I

Fault
A fault is a mesoscopic to macroscopic plane (listric
faults are curved at large scale!) along which the two
blocks on either side have displaced (slipped) relative
to one another
The slip is primarily due to brittle deformation

This distinguishes faults from fault/shear zone

Deformation in a fault zone is distributed along a

set of closely-spaced faults within a zone

Deformation in a shear zone is ductile (i.e., high

strain without macroscopic loss of cohesion),
involving either crystal plastic or catraclastic flow
mechanisms (or a combination = semibrittle)
Scale of Faults
The range of size for faults is from:
microscopic, mm scale (10-3 m), to
thousands of kilometer (10 6 m)
(regional, lithospheric)

A fault is called a shear fracture if its

dimensions are smaller than one meter
Net Slip
The net slip of a fault is the magnitude and
direction of relative displacement on the fault
plane between two previously contiguous
points (piercing points).

The net slip is a vector; it requires magnitude

(e.g., in meters) and a direction (trend/plunge)

It can be resolved into its components

We also need to define the sense of slip (or
shear) to completely define the net slip
Net slip
The net slip vector can be resolved into any
arbitrary pair of components, for example
along the strike (strike-slip)
along the dip (dip-slip)
oblique to the strike (oblique-slip)
This is the most common case!

The components for the dip-slip are:

Heave: horizontal component of dip-slip
Throw: vertical component of dip-slip
Measuring Net Slip
Need two previously contiguous points
(piercing points) on the fault plane

These two points (one on the hanging wall and

the other on the footwall) are the intersection
of a so-called piercing line with the fault

The piercing line, defined by intersection of

two planes (e.g., two beddings, fault and
bedding), becomes broken after faulting
Slip Lineation
Lineation on the fault plane that form
parallel to the net slip, for at least the last
increment of slip
Slip lineation forms parallel to the intersection
of the fault plane and the movement plane (M-
plane which is the 1 3 plane)

The attitude of the slip lineation provides the

attitude of latest slip (trend/plunge)
The sense of slip may be provided with shear
indicators on the fault surface
Slickensided
surface &
Slip fibers
Terminology - Non-vertical faults:
Block above the fault plane is the hanging-wall
Block below the fault plane is the footwall

By convention, geologist keep track of the

movement of the hanging wall (not the
footwall)

The hanging wall can move up or down

This is the basis of the classification of
faults
Terminology
Emergent fault
Active fault that cuts the surface of Earth

Exhumed fault
Exposure of an inactive fault at the surface
due to uplift or erosion

Blind fault
A fault that dies out in the subsurface
without intersecting the surface of Earth
General Types of Fault
Faults are divided into the following three
categories based on the relative displacement
of the fault blocks with respect to the attitude
of the fault plane:

Dip slip fault - The hanging wall block moves

(up or down) parallel to the dip of the fault
plane
The net slip is pure dip-slip
Classification of Faults
Strike slip fault - Both blocks move parallel to the
strike of the fault plane
There is no hanging wall in this case!
The net slip is pure strike-slip
Oblique slip fault - The displacement vector is oblique
to both strike and dip
The senses of both the dip slip (normal or reverse) and
strike slip (left- or right-lateral) are needed for a
oblique-slip fault
Left-lateral, normal, oblique-slip fault
Right-lateral, reverse, oblique-slip fault
Extensional or Contractional
Contractional fault
Forms due to shortening of the layers
Rock units become duplicated
Includes reverse and thrust fault

Extensional fault
Forms due to lengthening of a layer
Involves loss of stratigraphic section
Includes normal fault
Extensional & contractional Faults
 Dip-slip Faults
Dip-slip - Motion is along the dip
High-angle ( >60o)
Intermediate angle (30o-60o)
Low-angle <30o)

Two types of dip-slip: Normal and Reverse

Normal fault - If the relative motion of the hanging

wall block is down-dip on the fault
Is caused by extension

Forms horst and graben

Example: Basin and Range, Mid-ocean ridge
Dip-slip Faults
Reverse fault, if the motion of the hanging
wall block is up-dip on the fault.

Caused by contraction
e.g., faults in subduction zones

Thrust is a low-angle reverse fault

e.g. Grand Tetons; the Appalachians
Strike-slip Faults
Strike-slip - one block moves horizontally past
another block:
Are usually very long (100s - 1000s of km)

NOTE:
At a small scale, fault attitude may be constant
At a larger scale, however, both the dip and/or
strike of a fault may change
Strike-Slip Faults - Types
Left-lateral (sinistral) strike slip fault
To an observer standing on one block and looking
across the fault, the other block seems to have
moved to the left

Right-lateral (dextral) strike slip fault

The block across the fault moved to the right of
the observer. e.g., San Andreas fault

Oblique-slip
motion is oblique to dip and strike
e.g., normal, left-lateral, right-lateral, reverse
Fault Type
Listric fault:
The dip of the fault varies with depth.
Fault bend:
Is where both the dip and strike of a fault
changes.
Flat:
A fault which is locally parallel to the bedding
(in the hanging wall or the footwall).
A fault parallel to bedding in the hanging wall
may be across the bedding in the footwall, and
vice versa!
Ramp: A fault which is locally across bedding
Ramps/Flats before & after Thrusting
Bends
The change in the attitude of the fault steps
the fault either to the left (left-step) or to the
right (right-step)

Depending on the sense of displacement of

the fault, the right or left step may produces
either contraction (restraining bends) or
extension (releasing bends) across the step
Basement thrust over younger sediments in
transpressional segment of San Andreas fault
Fault Separation
Distance between the displaced parts of a marker as
measured along a specific line, on a specific plane.
Is usually not the same as the net slip, unless
the specified line is parallel to the net slip.
It depends on the attitude of the displaced marker.

NOTE:
Two non-parallel markers will produce different
separation
Separation along the fault for one marker may
show right-lateral, and for another, a left-lateral
sense of slip!
Fault Separation - Facts
A strike-slip fault cutting a horizontal sequence of
layers produces no horizontal (strike) separation!

A dip-slip fault cutting vertical layers produces no

dip separation

Use linear features (e.g., fence, roads, etc.), or trace

of a planar feature, on a horizontal plane, to
determine the horizontal separation

Heave and throw are components of the dip

separation
Faulting
Faulting, as a mode of failure, is the most
significant way in which lithospheric masses are
tectonically transported relative to each other,
especially in the seismogenic upper crust

Deformation in this brittle part of the crust takes place

by pressure-sensitive, strain rate-insensitive frictional
sliding on discrete fault planes with little inelastic
strain and dislocation activity

Faults commonly involve frictional sliding along

pre-existing joints, veins, and other discontinuities,
but can also initiate and propagate in intact rocks
Fault Geomorphology & Scale
Active faults such as the San Andreas:
Show considerable variation in the irregularity of
their trace
Commonly occur in variably-oriented strands
or segments
The segments grow and link as the total
displacement increases
Range in fault length is over eight orders of
magnitude (10-3 m to 105 m)
Display a power law size distribution; i.e., fractal
Fault Surface Structures
Fault displacement produces friction-related
striations (polishing and grooving) indicating
the latest, local direction of movement and
sometimes absolute direction of movement
The slip lineation are called slickensides or
slickenlines
Fiber growth in the direction of fault
displacement, on the slickensided surface,
provide clear indications of relative offset
Extensional fractures occur at a high angle to
slip direction and dip steeply into fault plane
Structural features to Recognize Faults
polishing and grooving
slickensides
breccia
gouge
mylonite
shear zone
associated fractures
drag of layers adjacent to fault
juxtaposition of dissimilar rock types
displacement of planar structures
Fault
Breccia
Clay
Gouge
Mylonite vs. Cataclasite
 Geomorphic features
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
Fault Scarp
Fault-line scarp caused by faulting of
a resistant layer
Fault and Stress
Conjugate shear fractures develop at about = 30
degrees from 1

1 bisects the acute angle of about 60o between the

two fractures

3 bisects the obtuse angle between the two fractures

Anderson Faulting Theory
The surface of Earth is a principal plane of
stress (i.e., there is no shear stress along the
surface of Earth)

The normal to the surface is therefore parallel

to one of the principal stresses (1, 2, 3)

This means that one principal stress is vertical

while the other two are horizontal
 Faults and the Principal Stresses
Reverse faults are more likely to form if 3 is vertical
and constant (at a standard state), while horizontal,
compressive 1 and 2 increase in value compared to
the standard state

Normal faults form if 1 is vertical and constant,

while horizontal 3 and 2 decrease in value, or if
horizontal 3 is tensile

Strike-slip faults form if 2 is vertical and constant,

while horizontal 1 and 2 increase and decreases in
value, respectively
Stress and Normal Faulting
Stress and Reverse Faulting
Semibrittle shear zone SC Folitaion
Riedel R,
R', and P
shears