Teclonophysics, 2 1 (1974) 93 - 134

0 Flsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands

KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS

RAPHAEL FREUND

Department of Geology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Israel)

(Accepted for publication April 4, 1973)

ABSTRACT

Freund, R., 1974. Kinematics of transform and transcurrent faults. Tectonophysics, 21: 93 ~ 134.

The geometrical consequences of displacements along strike-slip faults with respect to the associated
deformation, terminal and otherwise, is discussed in detail. It is demonstrated that transform and trans-
current faults are two distinct geometrical, let alone mechanical, types of strike-slip faults. Transform
faults are boundaries of solid crustal plates which always terminate at extensional or shortening struc-
tures, and as a rule are straight. Transcurrent faults are internal features of crustal deformation which
terminate by splaying or bending, and are usually curved throughout. The results of the geometrical
analysis are substantiated by model experiments and by field examples.

INTRODUCTION

Hill (197 1a, b, 1973) has recently revived the discussion about the distinction between
transform faults and other kinds of strike-slip faults in an attempt to show that the San
Andreas Fault is not a transform fault, and thereby questioning the plate-tectonics approach
to the structure of western North America (e.g., McKenzie and Morgan, 1969; Atwater,
1970). This is an important contribution towards the clarification of the ambiguity in the
understanding of these terms which prevails in the geological literature since the term
“transform fault” was introduced by Wilson (1965) for a class of strike-slip faults which
is distinct from the “Andersonian” type of faults familiar to the geologists. This ambiguity
is clearly seen in the tendency of many geophysicists to regard all faults with a strike-slip
focal-plane solution as transform faults, and the suggestion (Wellman, 1971; Garfunkel,
1972) that transform, transcurrent and wrench are synonyms.
The concept of transform fault has proved to be very successful in the geometrical
considerations of plate tectonics, although the problem of the initiation of these faults
is not answered yet. There are attempts (Vogt et al., 1969; Lachenbruch and Thompson,
1972) to show that the work involved in the ridge-transform system is smaller than that in
an oblique ridge, and that therefore the former tends to develop. But the actual stress
pattern which may initiate transform faults has yet to be proposed.
In the present paper it is intended to examine the kinematics of strike-slip faults and
94 R. FREUND

to compare the results with some model experiments and field examples. It will be demon-
strated that the transform faults are indeed distinct from other strike-slip faults in many
geometrical and mechanical aspects, but that the application of various criteria to natural
fault systems gives sometimes confusing answers.

Definitions

Clearly all wrench, transcurrent and transform faults are by geometry strike-slip faults.
All are nearly vertical faults along which one side moves nearly horizontally relative to
the other, and the focal-plane solutions of all are identical. As transform faults are a kind
of strike-slip faults, it is necessary to employ a different term for all other strike-slip
faults. The term “wrench” has a genetic implication of torsion, and new terms are gener-
ally undesirable. The present author remains, therefore, with the somewhat clumsy term
“transcurrent fault”. This term is extensively used, and conveys also the suggestion that
these faults extend across other structures.
The difference between transform and transcurrent faults may be defined as follows:
The displacement on a transform fault does not vary along the entire length of the fault
and is fully accounted for at both ends of the fault by other structural features of contrac-
tional, extensional or shear nature; whereas the displacement on a transcurrent fault de-
creases gradually or is divided on several branch faults at the end of the fault. This distinc-
tion applies only to the entire fault and not to any part of it, since any sufficiently small
part of a transcurrent fault conforms to the definition of a transform fault.
This definition conveys only a little of the nature of the difference between the two
groups of faults. It is therefore supplemented by the following list (Table I) which summa-
rizes the properties of the two groups, which are explained in detail later in the paper.

TABLE I

Properties of transform and transcurrent faults

Transform faults (A) Transcurrent faults (B)

Shape

(1) Terminate at structural features (exten- Terminate by splay faults or by the bending of the
sional, contractional, etc.) which accom- fault towards the receding side
modate the entire displacement along
the fault

(2) Straight or arc of a circle; if not, tend to May be straight, but are generally curved and tend
become so to bend progressively

(3) Occur single, generally no overlapping May be single, but usually in groups of parallel
active faults of the same sense faults

(4) May have non-active extensions (e.g., None

fracture zones)
__ _______
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS
TABLE I (continued)
Transform faults (A)
(5) Apparent offset of ridges opposite to sense
of displacement
Displacement
(6) Displacement equal throughout the fault,
taken up entirely at the end of the fault
by the accommodating structures
(7) Displacement unlimited, may be larger
than length of active fault
(8) Adjacent parallel faults with opposite
displacement of same magnitude are
common
Relation to associated structures
(9) Generally, though not necessarily, the
fault is at right angles to the extension and
contraction structures at its ends
(10) Conjugate faults may appear only as sec-
ondary features near bends in the fault
(11) Faults are boundaries between rigid plates
and transform the strain occurring on one
end entirely to the other end
(12) The strain with which they are associated
is not plane strain
(13) The faults are parallel to the direction of
the extension or the shortening at their
ends
(14) Faults do not rotate unless by outside
change of movement trend
Initiation
(15) Initiation unknown; sometimes old weak-
ness lines; some may form by collision
rather than by shear
Provenance
(16) Usually on the ocean floor, but a few
on land
COMMENTS ON THE KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM FAULTS
Most of the above-listed statements about
95
Transcurrent faults (B)
Displacement generally varies along the fault and
decreases gradually towards its end
Displacement smaller than a certain fraction of
the fault length
Almost no opposite displacements on parallel
faults
The fault extends obliquely, sometimes parallel,
to the extension and contraction structures around
it
Conjugate faults of similar size are common
Faults are an integral part of an internal strain of
an area, and are generally accompanied by other
structures
The strain with which they are associated can be
plane strain
The faults are oblique to the principal extension
and shortening
Faults may rotate within a constant strain field
Initiation by shear on the plane of maximum
effective shearing stress
Usually on land, as yet unknown on ocean floor
the nature of the transform faults need no
96 R. FREUND

-------I 4

Fig.1. It is possible to traverse two transform faults of opposite sense (A-0 but not two of the same
sense without crossing a ridge (or trench) between them (B-D).

further explanations, since they emerge directly from Wilson’s (1965) original definition,
namely that transform faults terminate abruptly at the spreading mid-ocean ridges or at
the subducting trenches, transforming the extension of the former or the contraction of
the latter entirely from one end to the other by shear along the transform faults. Still, a
few statements which might have received little attention and may help in demonstrating
the difference between transform and transcurrent faults require some explanation.

Statements A3 and A8

Parallel adjacent transform faults with the same and the opposite sense of displacement
are common. But though it is possible to draw a traverse across the active part of adjacent
faults with the opposite sense of movement (Fig.1, from A to C,), it is not possible to do
so on faults with the same sense of movement (from B to D) without crossing a ridge or a
trench between them. This shows that each transform fault is an isolated feature, account-
ing on its own for the whole shear movement of the system. This is clearly in contrast with
transcurrent faults, where parallel faults with the same sense of displacement are common
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 97

-----__-

Fig.2. An uncommon configuration of two parallel transform faults of the same sense of displacement
(after Ball and Harrison, 1970; Weissel and Hayes, 1971).

(and with the opposite sense are rare), and where the displacement of one fault is added
to those of the other to account to the shear of the whole system.
There may, however, be an exception to the above, in the model proposed by Ball
and Harrison (1970) and Weissel and Hayes (197 1) in their attempt to explain the separa-
tion of ridges in a ridge-transform system (Fig.2). Where the spreading rate of a ridge in-
creases across (at least two) successive transcorm faults, there are overlapping parallel
active transform faults with the same sense of displacement. Statement A3 is therefore
qualified.

Statement A7

The length of transform faults may or may not be constant according to the symmetry
of the system (Fig.3) but the displacement is always large in comparison with the fault
length. In a symmetrical ridge-trench system (Fig.3a), the marker m (which is a hypothet-
ical passive marker, not a magnetic anomaly) is displaced along the entire length of the
fault to m’, but it can go beyond it down the subduction zone. In the ridge-ridge system
(Fig.3b), the offset of the displaced markers ml-m’ is larger by far than the length of the
active fault, and nearly amounts to the length of the entire fracture zone. The total shear
98 R. FIXEUND

. . marker

Fig.3. The ~splaceme~t of a passive marker m, which is not a magnetic anomaly across symmetrical
(a, b) and asymmetrical (c, d) transform systems, may be equal to the length of the fault or even ex-
ceed it.

along a transform fault may thus exceed the length of the fault; this is impossible on a
transcurrent fault.

Statement A12

Either ridges or trenches exist at the ends of transform faults and these features involve
vertical movement of material up into the ridges and down the subduction zones. The
whole system is therefore not a plane-strain system. Termination of faults by triple-junc-
tion of three transform faults (McKenzie and Morgan, 1969) does not change this conclu-
sion, because the system expands by a triangular spreading centre at the junction (FigA),
and because ridges or trenches occur at the other ends of the faults. It is later shown that
transcurrent faults constitute in principle a plane-strain system, though it usually is modi-
fied by associated stmctures.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 99

Fig.4. Even in a triple-junction of three transform faults, the area increases at the junction.

It is nevertheless obvious that the transform faults on their own do not involve vertical
movement. The vertical movement can be avoided by a circular fault surrounding a rotating
rigid plate. But beside being geologically unsound, this case defies the term transform
fault, because this fault does not “transform” into any other structure. It is anyway in-
structive to examine the strain of a limited area which includes only a transform fault
without the associated trenches or ridges.
Consider the change in distance between the points A and B (Fig.5) which are situated
on the two sides of a single fault along which there is a displacement d. The change in dis-
tance depends on the angle a! between the line AB and the fault, on the length of the line
AB and on the displacement. To reduce the number of variables, the length of the line AB
is defined as one unit, and the displacement as the n-th part of it (d = I/n). The quadratic
elongation X is, according to the law of cosines:

A = 1 - 2 cos a/n + l/n2 (1)

The extremum values of h with respect to the angle (u:

dX/da = -2 sin o,ln = 0 (2)

occur, where sin o= 0, namely where a! = 0” or 180’. In these two, eq.1 is not defined, but
it can be stated that the largest extension occurs on lines which cross the fault against the
sense of the d~placement and nearly parallel to it. Those with the largest shortening are
crossing the fault in the sense of the displacement and again nearly parallel to the fault.
As the lines of maximum extension are nearly parallel to the lines with maximum shorten-
100 R. FREUND

Fig.5. Change in distance between two points across a single fault.

ing, one cannot speak strictly about strain where the axes of principal strain are perpendic-
ular at any point.

KINEMATICS OF TRANSCURRENT FAULTS

Anderson’s model

Anderson’s (1951) illustration of a non-rotational (pure shear) strain of a square area

by two conjugate sets of transcurrent faults (Fig.6) reveals several difficulties:
(1) How do the faults terminate? The boundaries of the faulted area in the model are
disrupted. This means that there would be gaps or overlaps with the surroundings at the
ends of the faults.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 101

Fig.6. Anderson’s (1951) geometrical model of irrotational plane strain by faults. Note the anticlock-
wise rotation of the upper and lower boundaries at stage b.

(2) It seems geometrically impossible that the two sets of the conjugate faults operate
simultaneously because they interfere mutually where they cross one another. They are
therefore operated in sequence.
(3) Consequently, boundaries of the faulted area are rotated anticlockwise by the dis-
placements of the first (sinistral) set of faults, and then rotated back by the displacements
on the other set. This can hardly be regarded as a non-rotational strain. It may be asked
why the strain rotates to and fro, and what initiates the movement on the second set of
faults when the first one is already existing.
The problem of the termination of faults which applies equally to rotational and
irrotational strains will be discussed first. This is followed by the examination of plane
strain in pure-shear (irrotational) and simple-shear (a kind of rotational) environments.

Termination of transcurrent faults (statements BI and B6)

A transcurrent fault can terminate without disrupting the boundaries of the faulted
area and without involving vertical movements by either splaying out towards the fault’s
end or by bending the fault’s end towards the receding side.
 R. FREUND

Fig.7. The termination of transcurrent faults by splaying. Note the reduced gaps and overlaps at the
ends of the splays and the change in angle between the fault and the boundary.

Splay faults

Many mapped transcurrent faults branch out at their ends into several splay faults,
and the stress conditions governing their initiation are discussed extensively (e.g.,
Anderson, 1951; Chinnery, 1966). As previously shown (Freund, 1971) the displacement
along the fault need not diminish towards the end of the fault, but is divided between the
branches (Fig.7). Yet the area of the gaps and the overlaps at the end of the fault is reduced
by the quotient of the number of the branches, since the number of the divided gaps-over-
laps is equal to the number of the branches, but the area of each of them is smaller by the
square of the number of the branches (because both the width of each and the displace-
ments are divided by the number of branches).
A small gap appears at the point of divergence of the splay faults. This discrepancy can
be eliminated by further local faulting or ductile deformation as long as the displacements
or the divergence angle of the splay faults are not too large. Each fault should branch into
an infinite number of splay faults to remove the gaps and overlaps completely. It is more
likely that the discrepancies, remaining after the fault has branched into several faults,
are accommodated by local ductile deformation.
The angle between the fault and the boundary of the faulted area changes (Fig.7). In
pure shear, where the boundary does not rotate, the faults rotate towards the direction
of extension. Alternatively, where the faults maintain their orientation the boundary must
rotate.

Bending the faultSends

Another way to avoid the disruption of the boundaries of the faulted area is by bending
the distal part of the faults towards the receding side. Thereby, the excess material at the
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 103

Fig.8. The termination of displacement on transcurrent faults by bending their ends towards the
receding side.

end of the advancing side of the fault is transferred to replace the deficiency at the back
of the receding side. This is a ductile deformation which takes place in a brittle material
which has just been faulted. This is the first example of the requirement that is essential
for the strain by faulting to occur: the material must be capable of simultaneous brittle
and ductile deformation.
The bending of faulted terrains is similar to the folding of stratified beds, where the
bedding planes are replaced by the faults, and the hinge line by the boundary of the
faulted area. There may be as many various types of fault-bending as kinds of folds. This
bending is illustrated by an example analogous to flexural-slip folds (parallel, or concentric)
which is geometric~ly simple. In this type of bending, the entire slip takes.place on the
fault, and therefore the slip amounts to the difference in the length of the arcs of two
successive faults. The displacement d is equal to (Fig.8):

d = CD - Al3 = [2n (r + w) o] /360 - (27r r a)/360 = (2n w ~$360 (3)

where r is the radius of curvature, ar is the angle of bending, and w is the distance between
two adjacent faults (Ramsay, 1967).
In Fig& the boundaries of the faulted area and the ends of the faults maintain their
orientation, and the bending is carried out by the rotation of the middle part of the faults.
As in the case of termination by splaying, the faults rotate towards the principal extension.

A field example of the termination of ~ans~u~ent faults

The south-west termination of the Hope Fault in the Southern Island, New Zealand,
serves as an example to the foregoing models (Freund, 1971). This fault, which is about
240 km long and along which the country is displaced dextrally about 20 km, terminates
on its southwest end towards the Alpine Fault by branching into numerous splay faults
(Fig.9). The fault and its branches are still active, and they have frequently a clear topo-
graphic expression. The faults are obliterated along river beds, and many long and straight
104 R. FREUND

Y
T
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 10.5

rivers seem to be following these faults. The dotted lines on Fig.9, which mark conjectural
faults, follow in most cases the predominant drainage system.
The branch faults displace a conspicuous marker, the Pounamou Ultramafics (which are
marked hy thick lines in Fig.9) dextrally by various amounts, ranging between 0.5 and
3.5 km. These displcements add up to about 15 km, about 5 km short of the total dis-
placement on the Hope Fault. This difference can be accounted for by the bending of the
terminal part of the fault towards the receding side (northwards) as follows. As the trend
of the Hope Fault is about 75” east and that of the middle of the branch faults is 90”, the
bending is 15”. The distance between the Hope Fault and the next one to the north,
namely the Clarence Fault, is 20 km. Thus, the amount of displacement taken up by the
bending is:

(2 rr w a)/360 = (6.28 X 20 X 15)/360 = 5 km

which corresponds exactly to the measured difference

Amount of displacement along transcurrent faults

The amount of displacement which can be accommodated by splaying and bending of

the end of the faults is limited, and the size of the deformed area at the fault end must
increase with the size of the displacement. Structures with vertical strain such as folds,
thrusts or normal faults may accommodate additional displacement along the transcurrent
fault, but the amount of displacement they can absorb is also rather small as long as they
do not turn into subduction zones or spreading centres. The amount of displacement
along transcurrent faults is therefore limited.
It is difficult to state exactly the size of the maximum displacement along transcurrent
faults, but following the argument about the rotation of faults, it has been suggested
(Freund, 1970) that it is unlikely to exceed three times the distance between two adjacent
faults. As the ratio of the faults’ length to the distance between them is about one order
of magnitude, the displacement along transcurrent faults is unlikely to exceed one-third
of the length of the fault. The figures available for the Marlborough faults in New Zealand
(Freund, 1971) give a displacement/length ratio of less than lo%, and in southeast Iran
(Freund, 1970) 13%.
Transcurrent faults are therefore different from transform faults in that the displace-
ment is limited on the first but unlimited on the latter (statement 7). This, of course,
does not imply that a strike-slip fault with a small displacement is necessarily a transcurrent
fault.

IRROTATIONAL STRAIN BY TRANSCURRENT FAULTS

One set of faults

Shear fractures appear in brittle material in two conjugate sets that deviate from the
direction of maximum compressive stress by angles smaller than 45”. This phenomenon is
106 R. FREUND

Fig. 10. “Irrotational” plane strain by a single set of faults. For explanation see text.

accounted for by the brittle-failure criteria (Mohr-Coulomb, Griffith, etc.) and is used by
Anderson (1951) in his classification of faults according to the three possible positions of
the principal stress axes in the “standard state”. Transcurrent faults are supposed to initiate
where both the maximum and the minimum principal stress axes are horizontal and the
intermediate is vertical.
The difficulties in proceeding from the initiation of the faults to a finite strain have
been demonstrated above (Fig.6). Namely, if only one set of faults moves (and the second
does not move in order to avoid interference) and does not rotate, the boundary of the
area normal to the compression rotates. As this contradicts the requirements of non-rota-
tional strain, this boundary is kept fvted (Fig.10) and thus, the faults rotate towards the
direction of extension. The displacement d relates to the initial angle s between the
faults and the direction of shortening, to the angle of rotation r of the faulted segments
and to their width w as follows, as w/b = cos s, and d/sin r = b/sin [90 - (s + r)] , then
(Freund, 1970):

d/w = sin r/cos s cos (s + r) (4)

The amount of shortening in the direction of the compression:

AS = AC/AB = cos (s t r)/cos s (5)

KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 107

Fig. 1 I. Relation~ip between displacement/width ratio and the angle s + r between the shortening
direction and the faults for several initial shear angles s and amounts of shortening Jhs

and the extension:

v/h, = DE/DF = sin (90~$)/sin [90-(s + r)] = cos s/cos (s + r)

The relations between the extensions and the amount of displacement are found by
dividing eq.5 in eq.4:

&/(cI/w) = cos* (s t $/sin r (61

and:

~~/(d/w) = cos* s/sin I

The numerical relations of s, r, d/w and dAS are plotted in Fig. Il. From these graphs
any one of the four parameters can be found directly from the other three. It is shown
that the final angle s + r of various initial angles s converge with the increasing strain.
Furthermore, at small strains the finite displacement~shortening ratio is smaller on faults
having the initial angle s = 45’ than that on faults with smaller initial shear angle. But
with increasing strain the displacement/shortening ratio becomes gradually smaller for
faults with smaller initial shear angle.

Fig.12. Rotation of the sides of a rectangle deformed by one set of faults. For further explanation see text.
108 R. FREUND

The discussed quadratic elongations, h, and h,, are not those of the principal strain
axes. This is seen in the progressive deviation of the two extending sides of the deformed
rectangle from the normal to the shortening sides (Fig.12, 14). The deviation is measured
by the size of the angle fl on the right top side of the rectangle deformed by dextral
faults (Fig.1 2). As AE = AB cos s, and AL? = AD sin s, then:

d4E/AD = sin s cos s (7)

As AC = AE/cos (s f r), and AD/sin 0 = AC/sin [90-Q - (s t r)] , then:

AE/AD = cos (s + Y) cos [/3- (s + r)] /sin p (8)

Combining eq.7 and 8 and arranging the multiple angle:

sin s cos s = cos (s + r) [cos fl cos (s + r) + sin fi sin (s + r)] /sin /3

therefore:

cot 0 = [sin 2s - sin 2 (s + r)] /2 cos2 (s + r) (9)

Fig.13. Relation of the angle between the sides p and the rotation of the faulted segments r for various
initial shear angles s and amounts of shortening JhS.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 109

Fig.14. Demonstration of the opposite rotation of the sides (b,d) of a rectangle faulted by one set
of faults at shear angles of 45” (a) and 30” (c). This rotation can be corrected by bending the 30”
faults (e), but not the 45” ones.

The two sides are perpendicular (/3 = 90”) at no more than two values of r for any
value of the initial shear angle s. Since cot /3 = 0 where /3 = 90”, sin 2s = sin 2(s + r). Thus,
either r = 0 or r = 90 - 2s. Where s > 45”, (3= 90” only at the initial position, whereas
there are two such positions for s < 45”. In the first case the sides rotate opposite to the
sense of the rotation of the faults, and in the second they rotate first in the sense of the
rotation of the faults and later they rotate back (Fig.13, 14).
Clearly there cannot beirrotational strain by displacement on one set of straight
faults. If it is nevertheless desired to maintain irrotational boundaries with one set of
faults, the sides must be pushed back to right angles (Fig.l4e), which may be achieved
by bending the faulted segments. In the case of s < 45”, this bending corresponds to the
direction of bending capable of terminating the displacement on the faults (e.g., Fig@,
but they are in opposite directions in the case of faults with s > 45”. It seems that the
most favourable angle s for irrotational strain by one set of faults would be that in which
the two obstacles (the disruption of the boundaries and the rotation of the sides) would
be removed by the same amount of bending of the terminal parts of the faults. It is clear
that shear angles s of about 30” would be the most favourable choice, because the devia-
tion of the sides at small shear angles (s < 20”) becomes so large that it counteracts the
rotation along the entire faults, thus bringing the displacements along the faults down to
a halt. The deviation of the sides at s > 40” is either too small to cope with the terminal
bending or is even opposing it.
The most favourable angle of shear cannot, however, be predicted in a more quantita-
tive way, because the amount of bending at the termination of the faults changes with
 R. FREUND

Fig.15. Experiments in irrotational strain with one set of ‘“faults” cut in plasticine models at various
angles to the direction of shortening (a), to a shortening of about 0.5 (b). c shows the displacement/
width ratio on the faults; d the deviations of the faults from the direction of shortening; and e the
ductile change in distance between adjacent faults.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 111

the style of the bending. This can hardly be expected to be the rather simple concentric
one demonstrated in Fig.8.
These results are confirmed by a series of experiments in irrotational plane-strain defor-
mation of plasticine models * into which “faults” were cut artificially at angles varying
from 0” to 70”. Those with s = 20”, 30” and 45” are illustrated in Fig.1 5, showing that
the amount of bending and displacement is maximum on those starting at 30”. In this case
the distance between adjacent faults did not change much, indicating independently that
most of the deformation is taken up by the displacement on the faults, whereas this dis-
tance decreases appreciably in the (s = 45”) one and increased in that with s = 20”. The
isogons (Fig.lSd) show that the bending of the faulted segments in all the cases is not
concentric, but belong to Ramsay’s (1967) fold class lc. The faults with s = 0” and 70”
had no displacements at all.
Plotting d/w and s + r of the central portions of the three illustrated experiments on
Fig.1 1 (20”, 30” and 45” there) shows that, when the initial angle s is 30”, the median
part of the model is deformed far in excess (6, = 0.4) of the boundary strain (0.52).
Whereas in the other two (s = 20”, 45”) the strain by the faults is less than 0.65, so that
a major part of the strain is ductile.
It may be concluded that systems with one set of straight transcurrent faults which
terminate with branching, without bending, cannot have developed in an irrotational
strain. Another conclusion is that if the overcoming of the ductile deformation at the
boundaries of a faulted area undergoing irrotational strain is the major obstacle to fault-
ing, then, even with disregard to the friction on the fault planes, the faults with the shear
angle of about 30” should be expected. This, however, is too little of a comprehensive
picture of the real stresses involved in faulting to be regarded as an independent criterion
for brittle failure.

Conjugate sets of faults

It is geometrically impossible to displace simultaneously two sets of conjugate faults

which are transecting one another. Therefore, the two sets must either not transect, or
they must operate in sequence.
Hoeppener et al. (1969) show an experiment of faulting in a clay model overlying a
rubber sheet, which is deformed in an irrotational plane strain by an elaborate deforma-
tion table. Three stages of the deformation of an illustrated segment of this experiment
are shown in Fig.1 6. Numerous very fine shear “fractures” appear in two conjugate sets
at a shortening of about 0.9. Some of these develop later into faults with observable dis-
placement, while others diminish. Faults of the two conjugate sets occur in about equal
numbers. They do not transect one another but occur in uneven-sized domains which
contain faults of only one set. With the progress of deformation, the two sets of faults

* Carried out in a squeeze box, designed and built by Bever (197 1).
 R. FREUND

Fig.16. Non-rotational plane-strain experiment in clay distorted by a sheet of rubber beneath it,
showing the rotation and bending of the faults associated with the displacements (after Hoeppener
et al., 1969).

rotate in opposite directions towards the extensional axis, while their terminations stay
in their initial orientation or bend slightly towards the direction of shortening.
It seems likely that each domain in this experiment behaves like the above-mentioned
plasticine experiments with a single set of faults. The two sets of conjugate transcurrent
faults in southeast Iran (Freund, 1970) show a similar configuration.
It has been shown above that the second alternative, in which the two sets of faults
form and operate in sequence as suggested by Anderson (195 l), is facing certain difficulties.
These difficulties can be removed if instead of operating all the faults of one set in se-
quence to all the faults of the other set, every single fault is formed and the displacement

\z
is carried out completely before another fault of the second set appears and takes over
(Fig.17). Though the displacements on the faults are unlikely to be large, the repetition
of this process may lead to rather large irrotational strains. The final pattern of this fault-
ing consists of two sets of faults which intersect and displace one another in sequence.
The overlaps at the outer ends of the faults can be squashed into the gaps. Contrary to

I
\

\ ,

\ I’ +
; q
\
\
1.
\

Fig. 17. A geometrical model of irrotational plane strain by conjugate faults that operate in sequence.
The faults do not rotate but offset one another.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 113

Fig. 18. A plasticine model deformed in the way described in Fig. 17. The stress is applied to the
plasticine from the sides, and not from beneath, the way it is applied in the experiment of Fig.16.

the previous model, the faults do not rotate from their initial position, and the angle
between the two sets of faults at their junction is obtuse in the compressive direction,
whereas it is acute in the previous model.
The cessation of the movement on an existing fault in favour of the formation of a
completely new conjugate one requires explanation. With a movement on a fault, the
faulted segments are either rotating in the opposite sense as shown above, or the bound-
aries would be displaced contrary to the fault displacement relative to the surroundings.
This creates stresses in the faulted block which oppose the movement on the existing
fault, but which at the same time add to the general stress on the potential conjugate one.
When these stresses build up to an amount which overcomes the shear strength of the
material, the conjugate fault is formed and the previous one stops at once. Then the new
fault locks the old one by displacing it so that the process is repeated alternatively.
The occurrence of faults with horizontal slickensides which terminate abruptly
against other similar faults, may well be explained by this kind of faulting. A fault pat-
tern with the properties of this model (faults transecting and displacing one another,
but not rotating) appears in a model (Fig.18) carried out on rather hard plasticine at slow
114 R. FREUND

strain rates in a pure-shear plane-strain rig designed and constructed by Peter Cobbold at
Imperial College, London.
A comparison between the results and the conditions of this experiment and the previ-
ous one (Hoeppener et al., 1969; Fig.l6), may provide a clue to the nature of the differ-
ence between the two fault patterns. The only significant difference between the two ex-
periments is in the way the stresses are applied to the deformed material. In Hoeppener
et al.‘s experiments, the stresses are applied to the clay model from the distorting rubber
sheet beneath it, so that every small part of the model is subjected to the applied stress
directly, and must deform. In Cobbold’s rig, the stresses are applied from the sides of
the model, and the top and bottom glide against the fixed walls of the box. In this case
a single fault across the entire model can temporarily relieve a considerable part of the
stresses from the whole model.

ROTATIONAL STRAIN BY TRANSCURRENT FAULTS

It has been shown above (Fig.12, 13) that the boundaries of an area deformed by one
set of faults and with no ductile component, must rotate. It is now demonstrated that
this rotation corresponds to simple-shear strain (Fig. 19). Consider the change in the length
of the line AB (of one unit length) which deviates by the angle 0 from the direction of
the faults, where A and B are equidistant from any two adjacent faults, in a system of
parallel faults with the same displacement d and spacing w. The number of faults crossed
by AB is sin B/w, and therefore BB’ = d sin e/w. By the law of cosines:

X = 1 t (d/~)~ sin2 19- (d/w) sin 28 (10)

Thus, the change in the length of a line depends only on the displacement and the orienta-
tion. To find the greatest change of the length with respect to the orientation, eq.10 is
derived with respect to t9 and equated to 0:

dvde = (d/w)2 sin 28 - 2 (d/w) cos 28 = 0

therefore:

cot 28 = d/2w. (11)

The maximum change in the length of a line at the initial stage of the movement (d = 0)
occurs at 0 = 45” and 135” (as 0 = cot 90” = cot 28); these two lines are the two principal
strain axes at this stage, the shortening and the extensional ones, respectively. The princi-
pal strain axes rotate with the progressing displacement, and the pre-movement orienta-
tion of the lines which become the principal strain axes at a specified displacement is
found by eq. 11. This is identical to the orientation of the principal strain axes in simple
shear, and it is therefore clear that the average strain of the examined fault system is
simple shear. All the strain parameters of simple shear (e.g., Ramsay, 1967) apply there-
fore to this system. The splaying at the ends of the faults (Fig.19) can adjust the bound-
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 115

_-----_---_____---,
a K-- 6\
+-- I

I I

i / I

I I

I
,___________________---..A
a\.--‘Y I

Fig.19. Simple shear with the faults parallel to the direction of shear. For further explanation see text.

aries of the faulted area to the shape of the surrounding simple-shear deformation to any
desired extent. The shear may be homogeneous where d/w is constant across the belt,
or heterogeneous where it is not.
If, however, the faults are not parallel to the direction of shear, then the faulted area
becomes incompatible with its surroundings (Fig.20). Faults that are not parallel to the
shear direction appear in clay experiments subjected to direct simple shear (Cloos, 1928;
Riedel, 1929). These faults diverge by q3/2 and 90%q5/2 degrees from the direction of
shear (4 being the angle of internal friction of the material). They are sometimes called
“Riedel shears” (Tchalenko and Ambraseys, 1970) and are denoted R and R’, respectively.
A third group of faults may appear at higher strains, at an orientation of 42 from the
shear direction, and this group is called P-faults by the above authors.
The faulted area becomes incompatible with the surroundings in both the length and
the orientation of the boundaries. In order to measure the size of the incompatibility,
the boundaries of the faulted area are kept parallel to the surrounding boundaries. In this
setting (Fig.20) the rotation of the faulted segments from their initial deviationf(mea-
sured from the shear direction in the sense of the shear) to their final deviation g is related
to the shear angle $. From this, the length and width incompatibility of the faulted area
is found (Fig.20d). Since AD/AC = sin f,and AC/CE = cos f,and since AB = AD and
CE= dE’:

C’E’IAB = l/sin f cosf = 2/sin 2f (12)

116 R. FREUND
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 117

Fig.21. a. Rotation of principal strain axes, passive lines and faulted segments in simple shear. b. Size
of length incompatibility associated with faults in various directions in simple shear.

~ubtract~g Bc’ = AB tan k-90) = -AB cot g from 6E’ + Bd = AB cot [(90 + $)-g] ,
we get 6E’/AB = cot [(90 + J/)-g] + cot g. inserting eq. I2 and arranging the multiple
angle, 2/sin2f= [cot (90 + +) cot g + I] /[cot g - cot (90 + J/)] + cot g:
118 R. FREUND

cot2 g - 2cot g/sin 2f - 2 tan $/sin 2f + 1 = 0 (13)

cot g = l/sin 2f + [l/(sin22fl + (2 tan $)/(sin 2j) - l] i (14)

The ratio of the width of the faulted area to that of the shear zone is HL/AE =
cos (g-90)/sin f = sin g/sin f,and thus the length incompatibility is:

sin f/sin g (15)

The displacement/width ratio on the faults is H’J’/H’F’ = tan p. Since (HJ - FC)/FJ =
cot K and FCfFJ = F’C’/F’H’ = tan k-90) = -cot g:

tanp=cotf-cotg=d/w (16)
The calculated results of eq.14, 15 and 16 for faults diverging by 10-20” (R), 70-80”
(R’) and 160-I 70” (P) from the shear direction over the shear range 0 < y =G1 are plotted
(Fig.21). All the faults rotate towards the principal extension axis and towards the mini-
mum compressive stress, so that R- and P-faults rotate against the shear. The rate of rota-
tion is, however, different. R-faults rotate very slowly, whereas R’-faults rotate rapidly,
and so increase the angle between them and the maximum compressive stress. The normal
stress on R’-faults is therefore always larger than that on R-faults. As the displacements
on the two sets of faults is equal for each conjugate pair, although they are in the opposite
sense, and the frictional resistance on R’-faults is larger, displacements are expected to
occur on R-faults in preference to R’-faults. The normal stress on P-faults is larger than
that on R-faults and smaller than that on R’-faults, but the displacements on the P-faults
are larger than on the others, so that they are again inferior to R-faults.
Passive lines with the orientation of R’-faults rotate in this range (y up to 1) by almost
the same amount as the faults, so that even if the R’-faults fail to be active for the above-
mentioned reason, their finite orientation will hardly be affected.
The length incompatibility of the faulted area (Fig.2lb) is positive for R-faults and
negative for P-faults. For R’-faults, it is negative at first and then it reverses itself and be-
comes positive. In the discussed range the absolute value of the change is smaller for R’-
faults than for both of the others. This incompatibility must be accommodated for by
some ductile deformation, such as bending of the faulted slabs, if the faulted area is to be
contained within its surroundings. The movement on the faults is therefore also resisted
by the ductile strength of the material. As this resistance is smallest for R’-faults, these
faults may be expected to be preferentially active in the cases where the friction on the
faults is small compared to the ductile strength of the material.
Even if the friction on the faults is more important, so that the R-faults are active
for a while, the shape incompatibility might increase beyond the limit permitted by the
ductile compensation, and then the movement on R’-faults or even on P-faults, which
reverse the shape discrepancy, may take over.
In any of the discussed faults some kind of ductile deformation, such as bending of
the faulted slabs, must be expected. All these faults will therefore be curved. Faults will
KINEMATICSOFTRANSFORMANDTRANSCURRENTFAULTS 119

be straight only when the faulted area remains compatible with its surrounding. It will
now be proved that this is possible only where the faults are parallel to the shear. If the
faulted area is compatible with the surroundings, then from eq.15, sin f/sin g = 1. There-
fore,eitherg=forg=(180-fl.Placingthisintoeq.13:

cot2f 7cotf/sinfcosf-tanJ//sinfcosf+l=O

As cot2f + 1 = l/sin2f:

(cos f T cos f - sin f tan $)/sin2 f cos f = 0 (17)

The three solutions of eq.17 are f = 0, or J/ = 0, or tan $ = 2cot f. Since $ cannot be
constant if the shear is to proceed, the only relevant answer is the first one, and therefore,
the faults must be parallel to the shear direction to avoid incompatibility.
It is concluded that were transcurrent faults are straight, they are parallel to the
regional shear direction. Where they are curved or bent, they are probably one of the
Riedel shears, and they deviate from the general shear direction accordingly. Moreover,
the displacements along faults which are being bent is likely to vary over each bend in a
similar way to that demonstrated in Fig.8. These conclusions appear in statements B2
and B6.

Simple shear in experiments

In some of the above-mentioned experiments (Cloos, 1928; Riedel, 1929; Tchalenko

and Ambraseys, 1970), the clay model is sheared only along a single line and the rest of
the material on the two sides remains undeformed. The R- and R’-faults that appear on
the surface of the model above the shear line, are confined to a narrow zone, remain
rather short and the displacement along them is small. The imposed shear along the line
cuts up to the surface very soon and neutralizes the Riedel shears.
In another series of experiments (Hoeppener et al., 1969) the entire clay model is
subjected to the shear strain. Two stages of a simple-shear experiment are demonstrated
(and reproduced in Fig.22). Both R- and R’-faults appear at a strain of (dhl =) 1.17. The
direction of the shear is not noted, but from tan 28 = 2 dhI/(l - hl) (derived from
Ramsay, 1967,3-66), it deviates 45” from the frame, and thus the R- and R’-faults
deviate by 15” and 75” from the direction of shear, respectively. In this experiment the
R’-faults become predominantly active. The amount of shear (calculated from
y = (Al-l)/hl) is about 0.32 at the first illustrated stage, and amounts to 0.52 at the
second stage where the strain is 1.3. If the R’curve starting at 75” on Fig.2la is followed
to the shear of 0.2 (=0.52-0.32) to the point 23b, the deviation of the faults from the
shear should be 86”, and the displacement/width ratio on the faults should be 0.2 1. The
values obtained from measuring these parameters directly on Fig.22b are 85-90” and
0.21 (average), respectively. This close correspondence between the calculated and mea-
sured results indicates that the entire strain between the two illustrated stages is accom-
plished by the movements on the faults.
 R. FREUND

Fig.22. a. Appearance of R- and R’-faults. b. Development of R’-faults in a clay model undergoing

simple shear after Hoeppener et al., 1969. (The illustration is a mirror image of a part of the original
illustration drawn in the direction of shear, to facilitate the comparison with other experiments).

Following the line of R’ (75”)faults on Fig.2lb to a shear of 0.2, it is found that the
length incompatibility of the faulted slabs amounts to 3-4%. In order to accommodate
such a shortening by buckling, the faulted segments should be bent about 25”- as the
shortening is approximately sin cr/a (rad). But the buckles along the faults are gentler
(15-20”) and rather small, indicating that the shortening is accomplished also by flatten-
ing in addition to the buckling. The bends on the few active R-faults are far stronger
(ca.30”); this corresponds well to the expected incompatibility of 6% for R( 15“)-faults
at this amount of shear.
KINEMATICSOFTRANSFORMANDTRANSCURRENTFAULTS 121

The frequent small gaps occurring on the bends along the faults in Fig.22b indicate
that the normal stress, and thus the friction on the faults, is small in this experiment. This
is in line with the fact that the R’-faults, not the R-faults, are predominantly active.
A simple shear deformation table was designed in order to obtain large shear strains
in a rather simple way. Some 275 aluminum plates, 1 mm thick and measuring 5 X 50 cm,
are stacked like cards between two parallel brass bars, one of which is fiied to the table
and the other moves parallel to it along a fixed rail. The aluminum plates are driven be-
tween the two bars by two pivoting brass bars which are connected through the moving
bar to a screw gear. The pivoting bars can rotate over 120”, and thus, a shear of 3.5 should
be obtainable. However, the aluminum plates stick together in groups of 5-10 plates at
angles larger than 20” from the normal to the plates, and this can be corrected only
manually throughout the experiment. Moreover, the pivoting bars fail to push the alumi-
num plates properly at angles exceeding 45” from the normal, so that in fact the shear
obtained does not exceed 2.5.
The clay model is placed on the stacked array of aluminum plates and is sheared by
their movement beneath it. The material used in the present experiments consists of
kaoline ceramic clay No. 5 from the Harsa factory, Beer Sheva (Israel) mixed with water
to make a homogeneous paste of the density range of 1.7-l .8. The heights of the clay
models range between 2.5 and 7.5 cm, and their diameter is about 27.5 cm. The screw
gear is rotated by hand at a strain rate of about 0.1 y/min.
The clay models, particularly the harder and thicker ones, tend to rotate bodily above
the deformation table, reducing thereby the amount of internal strain, and making the
strain history fairly complex. Fortunately this did not happen in several experiments.
Another defect of these experiments is the uneven strain of the models, where the inner
part is always deformed more intensely than the surroundings. The strain of the inner
part of the model is therefore sometimes larger than that applied by the deformation
table. The results of the experiments vary according to the density of the clay mixture
and to the height of the model, yet the following features appear invariably: the two
sets of the Riedel shears appear at a shear strain of 0.2-0.3, somewhat asymmetric to
the principal stress directions, and they are numerous and densely spaced. With the
progress of deformation, the R-faults always become active faults, and the R’-shears
vanish gradually. The R-faults bend progressively, and from a shear strain of 0.6 onwards,
P-faults appear and link the R-faults.
Three stages of the most successful experiment are illustrated in Fig.23. The clay
model did not rotate over the deformation table, and the strains of the illustrated central
part exceed the induced strain of the deformation table by 1O-20%. The Riedel shears
appear at a strain of 0.2 on the table, which amounts to 0.24 on the central surface of
the model, and their orientations diverge from the shear direction by 12” and 8 1”. Move-
ments on the R-faults begin at a surface strain of y = 0.35, and the average displacement/
width ratio at y = 0.46 (Fig.23a) is 0.05. The R’-faults are not active at all. With the
continuation of shear the displacement on the R-faults increases, the faulted segments
 122
R. FREUND

Fig.23. ThIee stages in the development of R- and P-faults in simpla shear in a clay model, showing
strong bending of R-fauits.
KINEMATICSOFTRANSFORMANDTRANSCURRENTFAULTS 123

bend, but the average orientation of the faults does not change. The d/w ratio is rather
smaller than that predicted by theory. At stages b and c (Fig.23) the amount of shear
since the appearance of the faults is 0.3 (0.64-0.35) and 0.55 (0.91-0.35) respectively,
and thus the d/w should be (Fig.2la, points 25b and 25~) 0.3 and 0.55. Yet the measured
average values are only 0.17 and 0.32. Moreover, the size of the displacements varies con-
siderably along each fault, in a way related to the bends in the faults.
The bending at stage b reaches up to 20”, and at stage c up to 40” (Fig.23). These
amounts of bending can account for shortening of 2.5% and 8%, respectively. These,
however, are the values of maximum bending, and therefore the average shortening is
clearly smaller, and yet it is smaller than the predicted amounts of shortening (Fig.21 b,
points 25b and 2.5~) of 5% and 10%.
The larger displacements usually occur on the parts of the faults which are bent oppo-
site to the sense of the shear (Fig.23c) and the smaller ones on the part which are rotated
in the sense of the shear. The latter behave frequently as passive lines in a simple-shear
strain. Rarely there are reverse displacements on these parts (dextral instead of sinistral),
but these are very small indeed.
The displacement picture cannot be observed satisfactorily by inspection of the offset
markers, because they are too sparse. The accurate examination is made stereoscopically
(Butterfield et al., 1970). When the photographs of two consecutive stages of the deforma-
tion are observed simultaneously under the stereoscope, any displacement along the long
axis of the stereoscope appears as a very clear vertical relief. The photographs are observed
once with the shear direction parallel to the length of the stereoscope and once perpendic-
ular to it to find the two components of the displacement field. Accurate measurements
are carried out by parallax bar.
The change in the size of the displacements along the bent faults is found thus to be
rather similar to that shown on Fig.8, yet it is not entirely so. There are variations of
displacements along straight segments of the faults as well. Comparing the displacements
on Fig.22 with those on Fig.23, it is clear that these on the R’-faults are more regular than
those on the R-faults.
P-faults appear at shear strains of 0.6 at angles of about -2” to the shear, and they
rotate to -7” at a shear of 0.9. At a slightly higher strain, the direct shear of the deforma-
tion table cuts upwards to the surface of the model, and from there onwards, these faults
take over almost the entire strain, while they remain straight across the model.
In a third set of experiments, J.G. Ramsay (personal communication, 1972) deformed
putty in a shear box which is rather similar to the one described above. The following
comments are derived from the photographs of this experiment. R-faults exist already at
a shear of 0.3 at an angle of 15” to the shear. The displacements along them progress
rather sluggishly, and accordingly the bends are rather weak. At a shear of 0.36, the
R’-faults appear at an angle of 80” to the shear, and these faults become subsequently
active over certain parts of the model which were not affected by the R-faults. P-faults
appear at a shear strain of 0.5 in areas where R’-faults do not exist, at an angle of -10”
124 R. FREUND

to the shear. At the final stage of this experiment, when the shear reaches 0.73, the dis-
placements on the R-faults are about twice the size of those on the R’-faults. The former
have rotated opposite the shear by 2”, and the latter with the shear by 20”. This experi-
ment demonstrates that the two conjugate faults may develop in the same environment,
though not concurrently and to a different extent. It is further noteworthy that the
angle between the R’-faults and the P-faults across the compressional quadrant is 110”
already at this modest amount of strain. The angle between the two conjugate Riedel
shears is only 90”.
In conclusion, both R-faults and R’-faults may predominate in a simple-shear strain,
or they may coexist in almost the same amounts. The differences between the experi-
ments carried out by Hoeppener, Ramsay and the present author are small, and it is un-
known as yet what condition is decisive in the initiation of one or the other. There are
anyway three clear differences between a fully developed R-fault system and an R’-fault
system. Where R’-faults become predominant, the displacements are rather constant
along each fault, the faulted segments are bent disharmonically and rather weakly, and
there are extension gaps on the bends along the faults. The bending of the R-faults is
stronger and parallel, the displacements along the faults vary, and the extension gaps do
not appear. These results are well in line with the predicted consequences of the geo-
metrical compatibility considerations.
P-faults appear always in association with folded R-faults at advanced strains, and not
with R’-faults. This is again in line with the compatibility predictions.

Field examples of bending of faults

Strike-slip faults frequently have a curved or even a folded outline on geological maps.
Yet this fact alone does not prove that these faults were originally straight and have sub-

172kY’ l,rpmm-‘-- 1’3.E 1

taLI!‘- *” ” ~
_,orepE’
fou’t~’ ’ 542q
b.- 4 &@/
e ,l
c,
: /+A ‘\,
n
__z---
‘~_ 1 -,+
fault- - ---- 1
HOP6 &y$&,a-----

! @yf:;3: _~~~_~~__“‘“” md-rL

/
-f=%
-_--.
E r
__ a
-J$2& __
3-
Fig.24. The bend in;heHope Fault along the south side of the Hanmer Plains is supposed to be re-
sponsible for the creation of the depression as illustrated in a and b; but the displacement on the
Hope Fault is longer than the length of the depression.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 125

Fig.25. Simplified map of the Dasht-e Bayaz Fault (after Tchalenko and Ambraseys, 1970), showing
the wavy outline of the fault and some figures of the variable displacements along the fault.

sequently been bent. They may have been initially curved or the apparent curvature may
have formed by interconnecting en-echelon segments.
In the following two examples, it is possible to demonstrate bending of transcurrent
faults in nature. The Hope Fault in New Zealand (Freund, 1971) bends around the
southern side of the Hanmer Plains depression (Fig.24). It has been suggested by Clayton
(1966) that the Hanmer depression is a rhomb-shaped graben which originated by the
strike-slip movement opening a gap at an offset (or a bend) in the fault (Fig.24a, b). It
is observed on several smaller examples of this type of structure that the area of the de-
pression is usually enlarged by normal faults on which the ground around the original
gap subsides inwards. Consequently, the depression is usually longer than the amount
of horizontal slip along the fault which caused it (Fig.24b). However, the length of the
Hanmer Plains depression is only 13 km in the direction of the Hope Fault, whereas the
dextral displacement along this fault measured by several displaced rock markers amounts
to 20 km. It is therefore concluded that the bend in the Hope Fault around the south side
of Hanmer depression was formed subsequent to a certain amount of movement on the
fault. In other words, the Hope Fault was initially straight and was subsequently bent.
Tchalenko and Ambraseys (1970) present an exceptionally detailed description of the
Dasht-e Bayaz Fault movements associated with the 1968 earthquake. Among other things
they were able to measure the amount of displacement along the fault in several scores of
points, and it turns out that the displacement varies considerably and rather irregularly
along the 20-km section of the active fault (Fig.25). It seems possible that some of the
variations may be attributed to the local distribution of the fault movement among several
fault branches, and that others may be accommodated by vertical strain, such as the
rhomb-shaped graben southwest of Dasht-e Bayaz. Yet most of the variations cannot be
explained by either of the above-mentioned, nor can they be accommodated elastically,
as they are sometimes rather large (amounting up to 3 m in 1 km). It seems therefore
probable that they are accounted for by the bending (or the reversal of bending, namely
straightening) of the fault. The folded outline of the fault is certainly in line with this
explanation.
126 R. FREUND

r--T---r11

.Y
~ , ::,
t_
SO’ Qd 196 11”

Azimuth
Fig.26. The relationships between the displacements and the azimuth on the Dasht-e Bayaz Fault are
random.

The displacements are plotted against azimuth in Fig.26, where the predicted result
should be, that the displacements are becoming regularly larger with the azimuth (which
is opposite to the sense of the sinistral shear). This, however, is not the case, and the dis-
placement - orientation distribution seems to be at random. It seems therefore that the
mode of change of the displacement along transcurrent faults deserves further study.

THE ORIGIN OF P-FAULTS AND OTHER SECONDARY STRUCTURES

P-faults appear at advanced stages of shear strain, as observed by Tchalenko and

Ambraseys (1970) and in the present series of experiments. It has been shown that they
can reduce the area incompatibility resulting from the displacements on R-faults, yet the
stress conditions which are responsible for their initiation have to be found. As the P-
faults appear only at advanced stages when the R-faults are already folded, it is proposed
that the stresses responsible for the initiation of the P-faults emerge from the resistance
of the curved fault to any further movement.
This proposal is examined by a photoelastic examination of the stress concentrations
and orientations along a curved fault (Fig.27). Two pieces of perspex glass are machined
to the shape shown in Fig.27. The two pieces are pressed together, and then pulled along
one another as indicated by the arrows. The intensity of the stress difference (al -a3) is
shown on Figs.27b and c by the birefringence frames. The stress difference near the
letters T-T amounts to five times the difference between the applied stresses, and that
near N is twice the applied stress difference, These places will naturally be the locations
of any secondary structure.
The compressive (solid thin lines) and tensile (dashed lines) principal stress trajectories
are shown on Fig.27b. If non-plane-strain deformation is likely to occur, one would ex-
pect normal faults to appear parallel to the solid lines near N, and folds and thrusts
parallel to the dashed lines near T-T.
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 127

0 0

Fig.27. Photoelastic model of stress along a curved fault. a. Shape of the model, arrows indicate the
direction of pull. b. Orientation of principal stress axes. Solid line: compressive; dashed: tensile.
Frames indicate the stress-difference concentration. c. Direction of maximal effective shear stresses
(internal friction 30”).

The orientation of maximum effective shear stress according to an angle of “internal

friction” of 30” is shown in Fig.27c. The solid lines show the expected orientation of the
secondary strike-slip faults with the same sense as the major fault, and the dashed lines
are parallel to the expected faults with the opposite sense of displacement. Again the
faults which may eventually develop are those which occur within the areas with the
highest stress differences. It is seen that the most probable faults have the exact shape
and orientation of the P-faults. The attribution of these faults to the bends of the R-
faults seems therefore plausible.
The complementary set to the P-faults may also form. They have the general orienta-
tion and sense of the R’-faults, but their exact orientation is more variable, and locally
quite different from the R’-faults. These faults are termed P’-faults. The deviation of
these faults from the major fault across the “compressive” quadrant is usually larger
than 90”.
It should be noted that the P- and P’-faults emerge from the curved shape of the
major fault, regardless of the way in which this curve or bend were formed. Thus, one
should expect to find similar features also along strike-slip faults which originated in a
128 R. FREUND

non-straight shape due to some weakness lines or any other irregularity. One may thus
expect to find a variety of secondary structures along transform faults also, if they have
originated in a curved shape. Hence statement AlO.

DISCUSSION OF SELECTED EXAMPLES

The results of the foregoing examination of the geometry and the kinematics of vari-
ous kinds of strike-slip faults are summarized in the introduction (Table I). These results
will be applied in the following to several well-known strike-slip fault systems in an at-
tempt to determine whether the faults are transform or transcurrent faults, and to evaluate
the regional strain in which they are involved.
The Dasht-e Bayaz Fault, discussed above, belongs to an E-W trending, strike-slip
fault system in eastern Iran, of which the Doruneh Fault is a distinguished member (Fig.
28). None of these faults terminates at compressional or tensional structures, and the
Doruneh Fault splays out at both ends. All the faults are curved, and they trend obliquely
to fold structures (not shown). Clearly, all these faults are transcurrent faults and not
transform faults. The same applies to the N-S dextral strike-slip faults along the eastern
and western margins of Dasht-i-Lut, and to the E-W faults along its southern margin.
Various set-ups of rotational and non-rotational strain can possibly lead to the observed
fault pattern. It is therefore impossible to evaluate the nature of the strain field and its
orientation without much more detailed information. The same conclusion seems to
apply also to the extensions of this kind of structure in Pakistan and Turkey.
The Dead Sea Rift sinistral strike-slip fault (Quennell, 1958) is a transform fault, as it
terminates in the south directly at an extensional feature (the Red Sea) which accomo-
dates the entire strike-slip movement of 105 km along the fault. The northern termina-
tion of the Dead Sea Rift is not known equally well, but it seems that there too, the
entire movement is accomodated by compressional features in the Zagros-Taurus range
(De Righi and Cortesini, 1964). Yet several features of this fault and features associated
with it resemble those of transcurrent faults. It is bent in several places and there are
fold structures oblique to it (Freund, 1965) the displacement along it changes from
105 km south of Lebanon to about 80 km north of it (Freund et al., 1970) and there are
sinistral faults parallel to it and dextral faults perpendicular to it (Fig.29).
Many of these features have already been accounted for in the above-mentioned papers,
and it is intended to add herewith an interpretation of the fault pattern shown on Fig.29.
The faults which are roughly parallel to the rift, are arcuate and diverge by about - 10”
from the Rift, thus resembling P-faults (Fig.27). By restoring the faulted segments accord-
ing to their shapes and displacement (Fig.29b), it turns out that the large curved fault
running from the northern tip of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba) to the south of the Dead Sea
(dotted line on Fig.29a) was probably the original shape of the transform fault. This bend
was subsequently “chopped off’ by the P-faults. Eyal(l967) and Garfunkel(l970)
demonstrate that faulted segments on the northwest tip of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba) are
 129

/
5
34’ \ Bayaz
:
- \
’ I
Tabbs \
---+A

i \

28’
\ \

Fig.28. Transcurrent faults around DashGLut, east Iran (after National Iranian Oil Company, 1959).
 R. FREUND

Fig.29. Strike-slip faults parallel and normal to the southern part of the Dead Sea Rift (after Eyal,
1967; Freund et al., 1970; Garfunkel, 1970).

rotated clockwise, namely opposite to the shear in correspondence with the prediction.
The (roughly) E-W dextral faults are most probably the corresponding PI-faults and
not conjugate to the Dead Sea Rift Fault, because they diverge from the latter by
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 131

Fig.30. The Marlborough Fault system, New Zealand (after Lensen, 1962; Bowen, 1964, Gregg,
1964; Warren, 1967).

IOO-120”, despite the small amount of shear along them (d/w is about 0.1 according
to J. Bartov, personal communication, 1970).
The Marlborou~ faults in New Zealand (Fig30) which serve as the third example,
are clearly transcurrent faults, as shown above in the discussions of the Hope Fault,
their southern member. Yet they are supposed to belong to the Alpine trench-trench
transform fault connecting the Tonga and the Macquirie subduction zones (McKenzie
and Morgan, 1969). If the direction of the Alpine Fault (N55’E) is regarded as the
direction of the dextral shear across Marlborou~, then most of the Marlborou~ faults
can be regarded as the R-faults associated with this shear, whereas the faults parallel
to Elliot and Kekerengu faults are the corresponding P-faults.
This system was previously regarded (Freund, 197 1) as a set of R’-faults in a N-S
sinistral shear. Although this interpretation is supported by the occurrence of rhomb-
shaped grabens, which bring in mind the gaps on the R’-faults in the ex~~rnent~
model (Fig.22) it can hardly be tectonically justified. This fault system may thus be re-
garded as an 80-km wide dextral shear zone, across which the amount of shear amounts
(according to the displacements on the Hope and Awatore faults) to about 1.0-I .5.
The last example, that of the San Andreas Fault system seems to resemble the last
one, as it is supposed to comprise a ridge-ridge transform zone connecting Juan de Fuca
to the East Pacific Rise (Wilson, 1965); it turns out, however, to be less simple. The
132 R. FREUND

Fig.3 1. The San Andreas Fault system, California (after Dickinson and Crantz, 1968).

mapped strike-slip faults (Fig.3 1) are again clearly transcurrent faults and not transform
faults according to all their features. They branch out towards the northwest and south-
east and fade out short of the spreading ridges on both sides. There are several parallel
faults of the same sense of displacement over a zone 200-300 km wide along the entire
length of this system, most of the faults are bent and curved in several wave lengths, and
the dextral faults are associated with conjugate sinistral ones and oblique folds.
The northern half of the San Andreas is particularly straight, and as the displacement
along this fault is certainly quite large, it is inevitable according to the geometrical anal-
ysis that the direction of the shear along the entire zone is parallel to this fault. Conse-
quently, the southern part of the San Andreas and the faults parallel to it (San Gabriel,
Elsinore, San Jacinto and Imperial) are by their orientation P-faults, and only the
Death Valley - Inyo Faults are R-faults. It has been shown above that P-faults should
be expected in a proper transcurrent system only after the R-faults are bent considerably.
The alternative is that the San Andreas Fault is an originally bent transform fault, as is
KINEMATICS OF TRANSFORM AND TRANSCURRENT FAULTS 133

the Dead Sea Rift, and that the Imperial - San Gabriel are the P-faults “chopping” this
bend off, and the Big Pine -Garlock faults are P’-faults, and not conjugate to the San
Andreas. Indeed, if the Garlock and Big Pine are conjugate to the San Andreas, then their
present deviation from the latter (shear direction) of 110” would indicate a rotation of 40”
from their initial deviation. This corresponds to a shear of about 1.O, which in terms of
kilometres over the width of the shear zone of 300 km amounts to this last figure. If, how-
ever, they are P’-faults as suggested above, they need not have rotated to any large extent.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study was carried out during a sabbatical leave at the Imperial College, London.
I would like to thank Prof. J.G. Ramsay, Dr. N. Price, Mr. P. Cobbold and Mr. J.A.
Watkinson from the Department of Geology and Dr. N. Ambraseys and Dr. J. Tchalenko
from the Department of Civil Engineering for stimulating discussions of various aspects
of the subjects dealt in this paper.

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