Fault (geology)

In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has
been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within the
Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the
boundaries between the plates, such as subduction zones or transform faults.[1] Energy release
associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may
also displace slowly, by aseismic creep.[2]

S t llit im f f lt in th T kl m k n D t Th t c l f l id ( t b tt m l ft nd t p i ht) dt f m
Satellite image of a fault in the Taklamakan Desert. The two colorful ridges (at bottom left and top right) used to form a
single continuous line, but have been split apart by movement along the fault.

A fault plane is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A fault trace or fault line
is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line
commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault.[3][4]

A fault zone is a cluster of parallel faults.[5][6] However, the term is also used for the zone of
crushed rock along a single fault.[7] Prolonged motion along closely spaced faults can blur the
distinction, as the rock between the faults is converted to fault-bound lenses of rock and then
progressively crushed.[8]

Mechanisms of faulting

Normal fault in La Herradura Formation, Morro Solar, Peru. The light layer of rock shows the displacement. A second
normal fault is at the right.
Owing to friction and the rigidity of the constituent rocks, the two sides of a fault cannot always
glide or flow past each other easily, and so occasionally all movement stops. The regions of
higher friction along a fault plane, where it becomes locked, are called asperities. Stress builds up
when a fault is locked, and when it reaches a level that exceeds the strength threshold, the fault
ruptures and the accumulated strain energy is released in part as seismic waves, forming an
earthquake.[2]

Strain occurs accumulatively or instantaneously, depending on the liquid state of the rock; the
ductile lower crust and mantle accumulate deformation gradually via shearing, whereas the
brittle upper crust reacts by fracture – instantaneous stress release – resulting in motion along
the fault.[9] A fault in ductile rocks can also release instantaneously when the strain rate is too
great.

Slip, heave, throw

A fault in Morocco. The fault plane is the steeply leftward-dipping line in the centre of the photo, which is the plane along
which the rock layers to the left have slipped downwards, relative to the layers to the right of the fault.
Normal fault and drag folds (eastern flanks of the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming, USA)

Slip is defined as the relative movement of geological features present on either side of a fault
plane. A fault's sense of slip is defined as the relative motion of the rock on each side of the fault
concerning the other side.[10] In measuring the horizontal or vertical separation, the throw of the
fault is the vertical component of the separation and the heave of the fault is the horizontal
component, as in "Throw up and heave out".[11]

Microfault showing a piercing point (the coin's diameter is 18 mm (0.71 in))

The vector of slip can be qualitatively assessed by studying any drag folding of strata, which
may be visible on either side of the fault.[12] Drag folding is a zone of folding close to a fault that
likely arises from frictional resistance to movement on the fault.[13] The direction and magnitude
of heave and throw can be measured only by finding common intersection points on either side
of the fault (called a piercing point). In practice, it is usually only possible to find the slip direction
of faults, and an approximation of the heave and throw vector.

Hanging wall and footwall

The two sides of a non-vertical fault are known as the hanging wall and footwall. The hanging
wall occurs above the fault plane and the footwall occurs below it.[14] This terminology comes
from mining: when working a tabular ore body, the miner stood with the footwall under his feet
and with the hanging wall above him.[15] These terms are important for distinguishing different
dip-slip fault types: reverse faults and normal faults. In a reverse fault, the hanging wall displaces
upward, while in a normal fault the hanging wall displaces downward. Distinguishing between
these two fault types is important for determining the stress regime of the fault movement.

Fault types

Faults are mainly classified in terms of the angle that the fault plane makes with the earth's
surface, known as the dip, and the direction of slip along the fault plane.[16] Based on the
direction of slip, faults can be categorized as:

strike-slip, where the offset is predominantly horizontal, parallel to the fault trace;

dip-slip, offset is predominantly vertical and/or perpendicular to the fault trace; or

 oblique-slip, combining strike-slip and dip-slip.

Strike-slip faults
E…

Schematic illustration of the two strike-slip fault types

In a strike-slip fault (also known as a wrench fault, tear fault or transcurrent fault),[17] the fault
surface (plane) is usually near vertical, and the footwall moves laterally either left or right with
very little vertical motion. Strike-slip faults with left-lateral motion are also known as sinistral
faults and those with right-lateral motion as dextral faults.[18] Each is defined by the direction of
movement of the ground as would be seen by an observer on the opposite side of the fault.

A special class of strike-slip fault is the transform fault when it forms a plate boundary. This
class is related to an offset in a spreading center, such as a mid-ocean ridge, or, less common,
within continental lithosphere, such as the Dead Sea Transform in the Middle East or the Alpine
Fault in New Zealand. Transform faults are also referred to as "conservative" plate boundaries
since the lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed.

Dip-slip faults
E…
Normal faults in Spain, between which rock layers have slipped downwards (at photo's centre)

Dip-slip faults can be either normal ("extensional") or reverse.

Cross-sectional illustration of normal and reverse dip-slip faults

In a normal fault, the hanging wall moves downward, relative to the footwall. A downthrown
block between two normal faults dipping towards each other is a graben. An upthrown block
between two normal faults dipping away from each other is a horst. Low-angle normal faults
with regional tectonic significance may be designated detachment faults.

A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault—the hanging wall moves up relative to the
footwall. Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. The dip of a reverse fault is
relatively steep, greater than 45°. The terminology of "normal" and "reverse" comes from coal
mining in England, where normal faults are the most common.[19]

A thrust fault has the same sense of motion as a reverse fault, but with the dip of the fault plane
at less than 45°.[20][21] Thrust faults typically form ramps, flats and fault-bend (hanging wall and
footwall) folds.

Flat segments of thrust fault planes are known as flats, and inclined sections of the thrust are
known as ramps. Typically, thrust faults move within formations by forming flats and climb up
sections with ramps.

Fault-bend folds are formed by the movement of the hanging wall over a non-planar fault surface
and are found associated with both extensional and thrust faults.

Faults may be reactivated at a later time with the movement in the opposite direction to the
original movement (fault inversion). A normal fault may therefore become a reverse fault and
vice versa.
Thrust faults form nappes and klippen in the large thrust belts. Subduction zones are a special
class of thrusts that form the largest faults on Earth and give rise to the largest earthquakes.

Oblique-slip faults
E…

Oblique-slip fault

A fault which has a component of dip-slip and a component of strike-slip is termed an oblique-
slip fault. Nearly all faults have some component of both dip-slip and strike-slip; hence, defining
a fault as oblique requires both dip and strike components to be measurable and significant.
Some oblique faults occur within transtensional and transpressional regimes, and others occur
where the direction of extension or shortening changes during the deformation but the earlier
formed faults remain active.

The hade angle is defined as the complement of the dip angle; it is the angle between the fault
plane and a vertical plane that strikes parallel to the fault.

Listric fault
E…
Listric fault (red line)

Listric faults are similar to normal faults but the fault plane curves, the dip being steeper near the
surface, then shallower with increased depth. The dip may flatten into a sub-horizontal
décollement, resulting in a horizontal slip on a horizontal plane. The illustration shows slumping
of the hanging wall along a listric fault. Where the hanging wall is absent (such as on a cliff) the
footwall may slump in a manner that creates multiple listric faults.

Ring fault
E…
Ring faults, also known as caldera faults, are faults that occur within collapsed volcanic
calderas[22] and the sites of bolide strikes, such as the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. Ring faults
are the result of a series of overlapping normal faults, forming a circular outline. Fractures
created by ring faults may be filled by ring dikes.[22]

Synthetic and antithetic faults

E…
Synthetic and antithetic faults are terms used to describe minor faults associated with a major
fault. Synthetic faults dip in the same direction as the major fault while the antithetic faults dip in
the opposite direction. These faults may be accompanied by rollover anticlines (e.g. the Niger
Delta Structural Style).

Fault rock

Salmon-colored fault gouge and associated fault separates two different rock types on the left (dark gray) and right (light
gray). From the Gobi of Mongolia.
Inactive fault from Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie, Northern Ontario, Canada

All faults have a measurable thickness, made up of deformed rock characteristic of the level in
the crust where the faulting happened, of the rock types affected by the fault and of the presence
and nature of any mineralising fluids. Fault rocks are classified by their textures and the implied
mechanism of deformation. A fault that passes through different levels of the lithosphere will
have many different types of fault rock developed along its surface. Continued dip-slip
displacement tends to juxtapose fault rocks characteristic of different crustal levels, with varying
degrees of overprinting. This effect is particularly clear in the case of detachment faults and
major thrust faults.

The main types of fault rock include:

Cataclasite – a fault rock which is cohesive with a poorly developed or absent planar fabric, or
which is incohesive, characterised by generally angular clasts and rock fragments in a finer-
grained matrix of similar composition.
Tectonic or fault breccia – a medium- to coarse-grained cataclasite containing >30%
visible fragments.
 Fault gouge – an incohesive, clay-rich fine- to ultrafine-grained cataclasite, which may
possess a planar fabric and containing <30% visible fragments. Rock clasts may be
present
Clay smear - clay-rich fault gouge formed in sedimentary sequences containing clay-
rich layers which are strongly deformed and sheared into the fault gouge.

Mylonite – a fault rock which is cohesive and characterized by a well-developed planar fabric
resulting from tectonic reduction of grain size, and commonly containing rounded
porphyroclasts and rock fragments of similar composition to minerals in the matrix

Pseudotachylyte – ultrafine-grained glassy-looking material, usually black and flinty in

appearance, occurring as thin planar veins, injection veins or as a matrix to
pseudoconglomerates or breccias, which infills dilation fractures in the host rock.
Pseudotachylyte likely only forms as the result of seismic slip rates and can act as a fault rate
indicator on inactive faults.[23]

Impacts on structures and people

In geotechnical engineering, a fault often forms a discontinuity that may have a large influence
on the mechanical behavior (strength, deformation, etc.) of soil and rock masses in, for example,
tunnel, foundation, or slope construction.

The level of a fault's activity can be critical for (1) locating buildings, tanks, and pipelines and (2)
assessing the seismic shaking and tsunami hazard to infrastructure and people in the vicinity. In
California, for example, new building construction has been prohibited directly on or near faults
that have moved within the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years) of the Earth's geological
history.[24] Also, faults that have shown movement during the Holocene plus Pleistocene Epochs
(the last 2.6 million years) may receive consideration, especially for critical structures such as
power plants, dams, hospitals, and schools. Geologists assess a fault's age by studying soil
features seen in shallow excavations and geomorphology seen in aerial photographs.
Subsurface clues include shears and their relationships to carbonate nodules, eroded clay, and
iron oxide mineralization, in the case of older soil, and lack of such signs in the case of younger
soil. Radiocarbon dating of organic material buried next to or over a fault shear is often critical in
distinguishing active from inactive faults. From such relationships, paleoseismologists can
estimate the sizes of past earthquakes over the past several hundred years, and develop rough
projections of future fault activity.

Faults and ore deposits

Many ore deposits lie on or are associated with faults. This is because the fractured rock
associated with fault zones allow for magma ascent[25] or the circulation of mineral-bearing
fluids. Intersections of near-vertical faults are often locations of significant ore deposits.[26]

An example of a fault hosting valuable porphyry copper deposits is northern Chile's Domeyko
Fault with deposits at Chuquicamata, Collahuasi, El Abra, El Salvador, La Escondida and
Potrerillos.[27] Further south in Chile Los Bronces and El Teniente porphyry copper deposit lie
each at the intersection of two fault systems.[26]

See also

Aseismic creep

Fault scarp – Small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved
vertically with respect to the other

Fault block

Mitigation of seismic motion

Mountain formation – Geological processes that underlie the formation of mountains

Orogeny – The formation of mountain ranges

Paleostress inversion

Seismic hazard – Probability that an earthquake will occur in a given geographic area, within a
given window of time

Striation – Groove, created by a geological process, on the surface of a rock or a mineral

Vertical displacement - Vertical movement of Earth's crust

References

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External links

The Wikibook Historical Geology has a page on the topic of: Faults

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Faults.

Fault Motion Animations (https://web.archive.org/web/20050217095327/http://www.iris.ed

u/gifs/animations/faults.htm) at IRIS Consortium

Aerial view of the San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain, Central California, from "How
Earthquakes Happen" (http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq1/how.html) at USGS

LANDSAT image of the San Andreas Fault in southern California, from "What is a Fault?" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20080404030212/http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/sfgeo/quaternary/st
ories/what_fault.html) at USGS

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