Faults

T L MATETE

ZIMBABWE SCHOOL OF MINES

 FAULT CLASSIFICATION AND
TERMINALOGY
Faults: Are fractures that have
appreciable movement parallel to
their plane. They produced usually
be seismic activity.
Understanding faults is useful in design
for long-term stability of dams,
bridges, buildings and power plants.
The study of fault helps understand
mountain building.
Faults may be hundred of meters or a
few centimeters in length. Their
outcrop may have as knife-sharp
edges or fault shear zone. Fault
shear zones may consist of a serious
of interleaving anastomosing brittle
faults and crushed rock or of
ductile shear zones composed of
mylonitic rocks.
 Parts of the Fault
 Fault plane: Surface that the movement has
taken place within the fault.On this surface
the dip and strike of the fault is measured.
 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
 Thenames of hanging wall and footwall came from miners
mining along fault zones, who hung their lanterns on the hanging
wall and walked on the footwall. (Tarbuck and Lutgents)
Separation: The amount op
apparent offset of a faulted
surface, measured in specified
direction. There are strike
separation, dip separation, and
net separation.
Heave: The horizontal
component of dip separation
measured perpendicular to
strike of the fault.
Throw: The vertical component
measured in vertical plane
containing the dip.
 Defining Fault Orientation

Strike of fault plane

parallels the
◦ fault trace and
◦ fault scarp
Direction of Dip of the
fault plane indicates
the Hanging wall
block

Fig. 10-11a, p. 227

 Fault:
Movement occurring along a discontinuity
Brittle strain and subsequent movement as a result of
stress
Fault
terminology
 Features on the fault surface
 Grooves (parallel to the
movement direction)
 Growth of fibrous minerals
(parallel to the movement
direction)
 Slickensides are the polished
fault surfaces.
 Small steps.
All are considered a kind of
lineation. They indicate the
movement relative trend NW,
NE … etc.
Small steps may also be used to
determine the movement
direction and direction of
movement of the opposing
wall. Slicklines usually
record only the last moment
event on the fault.
 ANDERSON FAULTS CLASSIFICATION
Anderson (1942) defined
three types of faults:
Normal Faults
Thrust Faults
Wrench Faults
(strike slip)
 FT
Types of faults:

dip-slip fault: normal fault, reverse fault,

thrust fault

strike-slip fault: left lateral, right lateral

oblique-slip fault: has both strike-slip and

dip-slip component. Note: The textbook calls
it "translation fault", which is rarely used.
 Faults

Fault: When
movement
occurs along a
discontinuity
Fault type
depends on the
type of stress
Different Type of Faults
FT
Types of faults. a) Normal faults, caused
by tensional forces, result in extension. b)
Reverse faults, caused by compressional
forces, result in shortening. c) Strike-slip
faults associated with shearing forces. d)
Oblique slip suggests a combination of
shearing and compression/tension. (Press
and Siever
 Normal Fault
Normal Fault: The hanging wall has moved down relative to
the footwall.
Graben: consists of a block that has dropped down between
two subparllel normal faults that dip towards each other.
Horst : consists of two subparallel normal faults that dip away
from each other so that the block between the two faults
remains high.
Listric: are normal faults that frequently exhibit (concave-up)
geometry so that they exhibit steep dip near surface and
flatten with depth.
Normal faults usually found in areas where extensional regime is
present.
Normal Faults
Normal Faults, Horsts and Grabens
Reverse and Thrust Faults

Compressive stress
causes the hanging wall
to move upward relative
to the foot wall 
Reverse Fault
At convergent plate
boundaries ancient rocks
can be thrust over
younger rocks 
Thrust Fault
 Thrust Fault
Thrust Faults: In the thrust
faults the hanging wall has
moved up relative to the
footwall (dip angle 30º or
less)
Reverse Faults: Are similar to
the thrust faults regarding
Thrust Fault
the sense of motion but the
dip angle of the fault plane
is 45º or more
Thrust faults usually formed in
areas of comperssional
regime.
Thrust Faults
 Strike-Slip Fault
Strike-slip Faults: Are faults that
have movement along strikes.
There are two types of strike slip
faults:
Strike-Slip
A] Right lateral strike-slip fault
(dextral): Where the side Faults
opposite the observer moves to
the right.
B] Left lateral strike-slip fault
(sinistral): Where the side
opposite the observer moves to
the left.
Note that the same sense of
movement will also be observed
from the other side of the fault.
 Transform Faults
Transform Faults: Are a type
of strike-slip fault (defined
by Wilson 1965). They form
due to the differences in
motion between
lithospheric plates. They
are basically occur where
type of plate boundary is
transformed into another.
Main types of transform faults
are:
 Ridge-Ridge
 Ridge-Arc
 Arc-Arc
 Other types of fault
 en-echelon faults: Faults that are
approximately parallel one another
but occur in short unconnected
segments, and sometimes
overlapping.
 Radial faults: faults that are
converge toward one point
 Concentric faults: faults that are
concentric to a point.
 Bedding faults (bedding plane
faults): follow bedding or occur
parallel to the orientation of bedding
planes.
Structures at Divergent Boundaries
Tensional Stresses cause brittle strain and
formation of sets of normal faults
i.e., Horsts and Grabens
 Horsts and Grabens
Older Rocks are exposed along the ridges formed by
the horsts
Horst
Horst Graben
Graben

Younger rocks lie beneath the grabens

Sediment fills in the linear valleys
Horst and Graben, Nevada

Horst

Graben

Humboldt Range, Northern Nevada Fig. 10-15b, p. 233

Horst and Graben, Nevada

Horst

Graben

Humboldt Range, Northern Nevada

Structures at a Passive Continental
Margin
Resulting from continental breakup
E.g., The Americas and Africa
 CRITERIA FOR FAULTING
 Repetition or omission of stratigraphic units asymmetrical repetition
 Displacement of recognizable marker such as fossils, color,
composition, texture ..etc.).
 Truncation of structures, beds or rock units.
 Occurrence of fault rocks (mylonite or cataclastic or both)
 Presence of S or C structures or both, rotated porphyry clasts and
other evidence of shear zone.
 Abundant veins, silicification or other mineralization along
fracture may indicate faulting.
 Drag Units appear to be pulled into a fault during movement
(usually within the drag fold and the result is thrust fault)
 Reverse drag occurs along listric normal faults.
 Slickensides and slickenlines along a fault surface
 Topographic characteristics such as drainges that are controlled by
faults and fault scarps.
Role of fluids in faulting
Fluids plays an important role in faulting.
They have a lubricating effect in the
fault zone as buoyancy that reduces the
shear stress necessary to permit the fault
to slip. The effect of fluid on movement
is represented as in landslide and snow
avalanches.
 Faults movement mechanisms
Movement on faults occurs in two different ways:
 Stick slip: (unstable frictional sliding) involves sudden
movement on the fault after a long-term accumulation of
stress. This stress probably the cause of earthquakes.

 Stable sliding: involves uninterrupted motion along a fault,

so stress is relieved continuously and does not accumulate.
The two types of movement may be produced along the
segments of the same fault. Stable sliding where ground
water is abundant, whereas, stick-slip occur with less
ground water
 Faults movement mechanisms
Movement on faults occurs in two different ways:
 Stick slip: (unstable frictional sliding) involves sudden
movement on the fault after a long-term accumulation of
stress. This stress probably the cause of earthquakes.

 Stable sliding: involves uninterrupted motion along a fault,

so stress is relieved continuously and does not accumulate.
The two types of movement may be produced along the
segments of the same fault. Stable sliding where ground
water is abundant, whereas, stick-slip occur with less
ground water
FT
Other factor that control the type of movement is
the curvature of the fault surface.
 Withdrawal of ground water may cause near
surface segments of active faults to switch
mechanisms from stable sliding to stick slip,
thereby increasing the earthquake hazard.
 Pumping fluid into a fault zone has been proposed
as a way to relieve accumulated elastic strain energy
and reduce the likelihood of large earthquake, but
the rate at which fluid should be pumped into fault
zone remains unknown.
http://faculty.uaeu.ac.ae/~afarrag/physical%20geology/GEODE1.jpg
 Dip-slip Faults

 Best seen in cross-section view

(vertical offsets)

 Normal Faults - upper block

slides down (tensional stress)

 Reverse Faults - upper block is

pushed up (compressional
stress)

http://northonline.northseattle.edu/gel101tb/images/fault2.jpg
Faulting in Esker - near White River Jct., VT (??)
Strike-slip Faults

Result from shear

stresses - best seen in
map view (horizontal
offsets)
Right-lateral vs. left-
lateral

http://epod.usra.edu/archive/images/carrizoplain.jpg
 Shear (frictional) Heating
During movement of faults frictional heat
in Fault zones
is generated due to the mechanical work.
The heat generated can be related to an
increase in temperature. This friction
heat is indicted by the formation of veins
pseudotachylite (false glass) in many
deep seated fault zones and the
metamorphism along subduction zones
(greenschist and blueschist facies).
In some areas there is indication of
temperature of 800ºc and 18 to 19 kb
(60km depth). This indicate that they can
form in the lower crust or upper mantle.
Fault zones may also serve as conduit for
rapid fluxing of large amounts of water
and dissipation of heat during
deformation.
Generally friction-related heating along
faults is a process that clearly occurs in the
Earth, but difficult to demonstrate.
 BRITTLE AND DUCTILE FAULTS
Brittle faults occur in the upper 5 to 10
km of the Earth’s crust. In the upper
crust consist of :
Single movement
Anastomosing complex of fracture
surfaces.
The individual fault may have knife-sharp
contacts or it may consist of zone of
cataclasite.
At ductile-brittle zone 10-15km deep in
continental crust, faults are
characterized by mylonite. At surface
of the crust mylonite may also occur
locally where the combination of
available water and increased heat
permits the transition.
The two types of fault may occur within one
fault where close and at the surface
brittle the associated rocks are cataclasts
and at deep where ductile and brittle
zone mylonite is present