Structure Geology

FAULTS
Fractures are planar discontinuities, interruption of the rock
physical continuity, due to stresses.
-The geological fractures occur at every scale, so that any large
volume of rock has some or many. These discontinuities are related
to sudden elastic relaxation of elastic energy stored in the rock.
-The geological fractures have their economic importance. The loss
of continuity in intact rocks provides the necessary permeability
for migration and accumulation of fluids such as groundwater and
petrol. Fractured reservoirs and aquifers are typically anisotropic
since their transmissivity is controlled by the conductive properties
of fractures, which the local stress field partially controls.
- Geological fractures may be partially or wholly filled by secondary
minerals, or ore deposits.
Planar discontinuities along which rocks lose cohesion during their
brittle behaviour are called:
- joints if there is no component of displacement parallel to the
plane (there may be some very small orthogonal parting; joints are
extension fractures).
- faults if rocks on both sides of the plane have moved relative to
each other, parallel to the plane (faults are shear fractures).
- veins if the fractures are filled with secondary crystallisation.
Joints and faults divide the rocks in blocks whose size and shape
must be taken into consideration for engineering, quarrying, mining
and geomorphology.

Fault terminology
Faults are defined when two adjacent blocks of rock have moved
past each other in response to induced stresses. The notion of
localized movement leads to two genetically different classes of
faults reflecting the two basic responses of rocks to stress: brittle
and ductile.

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Structure Geology

1- Brittle fault
A fault is a discrete fracture between blocks of rock that have
been displaced relative to each other, in a direction parallel to the
fracture plane.

A fault zone is a region containing several parallel faults. Fault and

fault zones are identified either when an earthquake occurs or by
geological mapping showing that motion across a discontinuity has
occurred in the past. On geologic maps, only faults that affect the
outcrop pattern are usually shown.

Ductile fault
Shear zones are the analogues in a ductile material of faults in a
brittle material.

Shear zones are regions of localised but continuous ductile

displacement, formed under conditions of elevated temperature
and/or confining pressure, in contrast to fault zones that are
regions of localised brittle deformation. Shear zones are thus
ductile faults, by contrast to the brittle faults.

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Structure Geology

Geometrical classification
Fault plane
-Faults dipping more than 45° are called high angle faults.
-Faults dipping less than 45° are called low angle faults.
Where low-angle faults affect a set of horizontal bedded rocks,
they generally follow a staircase path made up of alternating ramps
and flats.
- The flats are where the overlying rocks slide along a relatively
weak bedding plane, which refers to a surface across which there is
a discontinuity in displacement, strain or fold style.

- The ramps are fault sections climbing through the stratigraphic

sequence, typically at around 30° to the horizontal, across stiff,
competent layers. Ramps do not necessarily strike perpendicular to
the movement direction (frontal ramp) but are also found oblique or
parallel to the transport direction (lateral ramp).

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Structure Geology

Most long faults are segmented, each segment having its individual
history; fault segments are usually not coplanar. The fault that
intersected the ground surface while it was active is an emergent
fault, by opposition to blind faults that did not break the surface.
Emergent faults produce a topographic step, the fault scarp.

A listric fault is a fault which shallows with depth

Fault blocks
The rock above and below a non-vertical fault or shear zone is
referred to as the hanging-wall and the footwall of the fault,
respectively. Rocks that have been translated great distances away
from their original site are allochthonous.

Growth faults
Growth faults are faults that operate during sedimentation and
therefore displace an active surface of sedimentation. They form

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Structure Geology

in unconsolidated sediments freshly deposited in basins that are

actively growing in breadth and depth. A sediments or specific
layers are thicker on the hanging-wall than sediments and layers of
the same age on the footwall.

Kinematic classification
Slip
- Slip is taken as the direction of movement of the hanging wall
relative to the footwall.
- The displacement vector connecting originally coincident points on
opposite sides of the fault plane is called net slip. Its length
provides the amount of displacement on the fault, which generally is
the addition of several movements. The components of the net slip
parallel to the strike and dip of the fault are the strike slip and
the dip slip. Total (net) slip vector = strike slip vector plus dip-slip
component vector.
The rake is the angle measured within the fault plane down from
the strike direction to the line of slip.
The offset shown by a planar feature in a vertical cross section
perpendicular to the fault is called the dip separation. The vertical
component of the dip separation is the throw and the horizontal
component (perpendicular to the fault strike) is the heave. Notice
that the dip separation is not equivalent to the dip slip, the former
depending on the orientation of the offset surface as well as on the

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Structure Geology

nature of the fault displacement. (heave and throw as horizontal

and vertical separation components in cross section view).
Faults are classified according to the direction of the relative
movement between fault blocks, which is related to the type of
stress causing the fault.

Fault classification
A dersonian classification: This classification is based both on
observation of what types of faults are common, and on theory
guided by the idea that the earth's surface tends to shape fault
orientations. Real faults are more complicated.
- normal faults.
- thrust faults.
- reverse faults.
- wrench faults.

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Structure Geology

Fault type Fault dip Dip or strike Hanging Horizontal

slip wall motion kinematics
Normal 60 degree Dip slip down extension
Thrust 30 degree Dip slip up contraction
Reverse 60 degree Dip slip up contraction
wrench subvertical Strike slip NA both

Normal fault
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 that results from normal faulting, such faults
are also termed extension faults.

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Structure Geology

Extensional ramps cut down section in the direction of transport

and are termed detachments although a typical detachment has no
roots and follows a stratigraphic horizon. A normal fault with a dip
less than 45° is sometimes called a lag or a denudation fault.

Reverse fault
A reverse fault is a dip slip fault on which the hanging-wall has
moved up and over the footwall. Old rocks are brought over younger
ones. Such faults exhibit a repetition or overlap of a geological
horizon, and are accordingly also termed compression fault.

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Structure Geology

A thrust fault is a low-angle reverse fault along which the hanging

wall forms thrust-sheets (nappes). Most common, thrust faults
ramp up section towards the surface in the direction of tectonic
transport.

Strike slip fault

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
also referred to as transcurrent faults and wrench faults. The
sense of the strike-slip displacement on a fault is described by the
terms sinistral and dextral. A fault is sinistral if, to an observer
standing on one block and facing the other, the opposite block
appears to have been displaced to his left. Conversely, if the
movement is to the right the fault is dextral.

A transfer fault is a strike slip fault that transfers displacement

between two similarly oriented fault segments. Transfer faults are
usually confined to hanging walls of detached systems and terminate
where they connect the linked faults. Transfer faults and zones are
lateral ramps that may accommodate differential displacement

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Structure Geology

and/or strain in adjacent blocks (different amounts of shortening

or extension on both sides of the fault).

thrusts and normal faults strike at a high angle to the slip

direction, transfer faults linking two thrusts or normal faults are
therefore nearly parallel to the movement direction.
A tear fault is a strike slip fault that runs across the strike of a
extensional belt and accommodates differential displacement
between two segments of the belt. Such faults are usually confined
to hanging walls of detached systems.

Transform fault
A transform fault is a strike slip fault at plate boundaries. There
are three types:
Ridge-Ridge transforms link two segments of a constructive plate
boundary.

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Structure Geology

Trench-Trench transforms link two segments of a destructive plate

boundary.
Ridge-Trench transforms link a constructive plate boundary to a
destructive one.

Ridge-Ridge transform faults are most common.

They are fracture zones striking at nearly right angles to the
mid-oceanic ridges and seemingly offsetting the ridges.

Hybrid fault
The terms normal fault and reverse fault, while strictly defined for
faults with zero strike slip displacement, can also be used for faults
with small strike slip displacements accompanying much larger dip
slip displacements.

Scissors fault
One fault block can rotate around an axis perpendicular to the plane
of scissors faults.

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Structure Geology

Normal faults formed

1-horst and graben
A down-dropped block bounded by conjugate normal faults dipping
toward each other is a graben and a relatively elevated block
bounded by outward-dipping normal faults is a horst. Rifts are
major grabens that extend for long distances. A graben bounded by
a single set of normal faults on one side of a tilted fault block has a
In natural fault systems, faults grow at different rates and
therefore give rise to asymmetric grabens and block rotation.
In fact, faulting is usually associated with rotation. There are
two types of normal-fault along which rotation is important:
Planar and listric faults.

2- Planar faults
Planar, rotational normal faults occur above a basal detachment or a
brittle-ductile transition. They separate juxtaposed and tilted
blocks without internal deformation. Both the faults and fault-
blocks rotate simultaneously about an axis roughly parallel to the
strike of the faults (rigid body rotation resulting in domino or
bookshelf faulting). Each fault block has its own half graben. Each
fault must have the same amount of displacement and tilting or
there are space problems at the bottom of the system (opening of
voids). Planar, rotational faults and blocks generally abut against
transfer, scissors faults.

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Structure Geology

Thrusts formed thin-skinned and thick-skinned

Two styles are commonly invoked to describe thrust tectonics:
thin-skinned and thick-skinned tectonics. They refer to the
degree of basement involvement in the considered thrust system.

1-Thin-skinned tectonics
In many foreland fold-and-thrust belts, the sedimentary cover
is detached from the basement typically along fault planes with
ramp-flat geometries. The sole thrusts remain above the
strong crystalline basement left undeformed. This style of
deformation is known as thin-skinned tectonics. Then, bedding
plays a controlling factor in generating staircase, flat–ramp
systems. Thin-skinned tectonics implies large horizontal
displacements whereby the stratigraphic sequence above the
floor décollement can be piled up several times, thrust sheet
upon thrust sheet.

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Structure Geology

2-Thick-skinned tectonics
In metamorphic regions thrusting is commonly associated with
intense and distributed ductile deformation. The staircase, flat and
ramp geometry is not respected. Major sole thrusts extend steeply
down to the basement. Although thrust zones tend to follow
surfaces of rheological contrast, they involve the basement. This
style is termed thick-skinned tectonics.

Strike-slip faults formed

Strike-slip faults are in general vertical and develop at ca. 30° to
the horizontal compression direction. Major strike-slip faults can be
traced over several hundred kilometres, in which case they are not
simple planar movement planes. They often develop a system of
right-stepping and left-stepping faults. Where right stepping
faults generate an extensional zone, left-stepping faults generate a
compressive zone, and vice versa, according to the sense of
displacement on the master fault.

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Structure Geology

Fault activity
Although every fault has moved and can be reactivated, geologists
have developed a qualitative three-term classification to appreciate
seismic risks.
- An active fault has moved during the past 10 000 years.
- A potentially active fault has moved during the Quaternary
- An inactive fault has had movement older than the Quaternary.
However, it is difficult to prove that a fault is active without
historical record of earthquakes on the fault. Any fault is a
weakness "capable" of reactivation.

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