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
 Separation: The amount of
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.
 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)
Different Type of Faults
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
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 Thrust Fault
to the thrust faults
regarding 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
Strike-Slip
slip faults:
A] Right lateral strike-slip fault Faults
(dextral): Where the side
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.
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.
 FAULTS MECHANICS
Anderson 1942 defined three fundamental possibilities of stress regimes and stress
orientation that produce the three types of faults (Normal, thrust, and strike-slip)
note that σ1> σ 2> σ 3
 Thrust fault: σ 1 and σ 2 are horizontal and σ 3 is vertical. Thus a state of
horizontal compression is defined for thrust faults. Shear plane is oriented to σ 1
with angle = or < 45º and // σ 2.
 Strike-Slip faults: σ 1 and σ 3 are horizontal and σ 2 is vertical. Shear plane is
oriented to σ 1 with angle = or 45º and // σ 3. Form also due to horizontal
compression.
 Normal faults: σ 1 is vertical and σ 2 and σ 3 are horizontal. Shear plane is
oriented 45º or less to σ 1 and // σ 2. Form due to horizontal extension or vertical
compression.
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
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.
Fault Surfaces and Frictional sliding

Fault surfaces between two

large blocks are always
not planar especially on
the microscopic scale. This
irregularities and
imperfections are called
asperities increase the
resistance to frictional
sliding. They also reduce
the surface area actually in
contact. The initial contact
area may be as little as
10%, but as movement
started the asperities will
break and contact will be
more.
 Shear (frictional) Heating in Fault zones
During movement of faults frictional heat
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
 SHEAR ZONE
Shear zones are produced by both
homogeneous and
inhomogenous simple shear, or
oblique motion and are thought
of as zones of ductile shear.
Shear zones are classified by
Ramsay (1980) as:
1) brittle
2) brittle-ductile
3) ductile
 Characteristics of Shear Zones
Shear zones on all scales are zones
of weakness.
 Associate with the formation of
mylonite.
 Presence of sheath folds.
 Shear zones may act both as
closed and open geochemical
systems with respect to fluids
and elements.
 Shear zones generally have
parallel sides.
 Displacement profiles along
any cross section through
shear zone should be identical.
INDICATORS OF SHEAR SENSE OF MOVEMENT

1. Rotated porphyroblasts
and porphyroclasts.
2. Pressure shadows
3. Fractured grains.
4. Boudins
5. Presence of C- and S-
surfaces (parallel
alignment of platy
mineral)
6. Riedel shears.