SECONDARY STRUCTURES

IN ROCKS

BY:

AGHA SHAFI JAWAID PATHAN

FAULTS

Faults are fractures (Ruptures) in the Earth's crust, along

which one side moves with respect to the other.

The essential feature is differential movement parallel to the

surface of the fracture.

In other words, a Fault is the Breaking and Displacement of

the rock along a plane (Fault Plane), along which, the two
(broken) rock blocks slide with respect to each other.

Faults may be ranging in size from a few tens of inches and

the total measurement is measured in fractions of an inch.

At the other extreme, there are faults which are hundreds of

miles long, with a displacement measured in miles and even
tens of miles.

GEOMETRY OF A FAULT

GEOMETRY OF FAULTS
1. THE FAULT/FAULT ZONE
Fault is the actual fracture or zone of fracture in the
crust, along which displacement of some sort occurs.
Though the fault depicted above appears as a simple
and single planar feature, what we call a fault can, in
fact, be a complex set of fractures with a very chaotic
geometry.
If such a set of fractures is large enough, it is often
referred to as a fault zone.
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Geologists sketch of the fault zone shown in previous slide

GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont.)

2. FAULT PLANE
It is a plane used to represent an actual fault, or a
particular segment of a fault.
Faults are generally not perfectly flat, smooth planes, so a
Fault Plane may not be a true representation of the fault.

However, faults do typically act as planes even though

some, in fact, are so physically complex that trying to
draw their structure would be tricky and tactful.
Defining a fault plane is the most convenient way to
clearly illustrate, represent and model a fault.

The Fault Planes

GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont.)

3. Horizontal plane
It is a reference plane useful when measuring the
characteristics of faults.
The standard reference plane is the horizontal.
It usually approximates the Earth's surface, but does
not vary.
Here, the horizontal plane shown is that of sea
level, but a horizontal plane of any altitude or depth
can be used for reference.

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GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont.)

4. SURFACE TRACE/FAULT LINE
It is the intersection of a fault plane with the Earth's surface
produces what is known as the surface trace of the fault.
This intersection is also known as a fault trace, or a fault line,
since this is the line drawn to represent a fault on a standard
map.
The traces of faults are not always obvious at the surface.
Some, however, display themselves quite plainly, particularly
when the observer knows what to look for.

5. THE TREND
It is the general direction of a fault trace. It takes across the
Earth's surface.
Trend may be used to average out the small, localized bends of
a long fault and talk about its overall directionality.

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GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont.)

6. HANGING WALL
It is the part of the Earth's crust above the plane of the
fault.
Its name originates from mining activities along large,
ancient faults which had since been "filled in" with
mineral deposits.
Miners could hang their lamps from the wall above them,
coining the term "hanging wall" for this side of a fault.

7. FOOTWALL
It is the part of the Earth's crust below a fault.
As with the hanging wall, the "footwall" was so named by
miners, since they would walk on the lower side of a
mined-out fault.

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GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont:)

THE ROCK SURFACE ABOVE
THE MINERALIZED FAULT
ZONE IS CALLED THE
HANGING WALL (NOTE
THE LANTERN IS HUNG ON
THE HANGING WALL).
THE
ROCK
SURFACE
BELOW THE MINERALIZED
FAULT ZONE IS THE FOOT
WALL (NOTE THE MINER IS
STANDING ON THE FOOT
WALL).

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GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont.)

8. TECTONIC OR FAULT BRECCIA
It is a medium to coarse-grained cataclasite containing >30%
visible fragments.

9. FAULT GOUGE
It is an incohesive, clay-rich fine to ultrafine-grained
cataclasite, which may possess a planar fabric and containing
<30% visible fragments. Rock clasts may be present.

10. SLIP
It is defined as the relative movement of geological features
present on either side of a fault plane, and is a displacement
vector. A fault's sense of slip is defined as the relative motion
of the rock on each side of the fault with respect to the other
side.

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GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont:)

11. THE THROW and HEAVE
It is the vertical component of
the dip separation and the
Heave of the fault is the
horizontal component, as in
"throw up and heave out.

Throw

12. THE HADE ANGLE ()

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

= dipping angle
Heave
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GEOMETRY OF FAULTS (cont:)

13. FAULT STRIAE OR STRIATION
These are the linear furrows
generated from fault movement.
The striation's direction reveal
the movement directions in the
fault plane.
Striations can also be a growth
pattern shown on certain faces
of certain minerals.
Minerals that can include growth
striations
include
Pyrite,
Feldspar, Quartz, Tourmaline,
and Sphalerite.

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TYPES OF FAULTS
A. DIP-SLIP FAULT
Normal Fault
Reverse Fault
B. STRIKE-SLIP FAULT

C. OBLIQUE-SLIP FAULT
D. HINGE FAULT
E. TEAR FAULT

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DIP-SLIP FAULT
Faults in which the movement is primarily parallel to the
dip (or inclination) of the fault surface are called Dip-Slip
Faults.
According to the respective movement of the two
Walls (i.e. Hanging wall and Foot wall) with respect to
each other, the Dip Slip Fault is further classified into:
o Normal Fault

o Reverse Fault
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TO DESCRIBE THE DISPLACEMENT ALONG A DIP-SLIP FAULT,

WE USE NOMENCLATURE THAT AROSE FROM MINERS WHO
EXCAVATED SHAFTS ALONG FAULT ZONES.

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NORMAL FAULT
A Fault is said to be Normal Fault, When the Hanging
wall block moves down relative to the Footwall block.

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NORMAL FAULT

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REVERSE FAULT
A Fault is said to be a Reverse Fault when the Hanging
wall block moves up relative to the Footwall block

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REVERSE FAULT

STIKE-SLIP FAULT
A Fault that exhibit mainly horizontal displacement, i.e.
parallel to the strike of the fault surface, is known as
Strike-Slip Fault.

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STIKE-SLIP FAULT (cont:)

One of the world's most famous faults is the San Andra's Fault in California.
The fault line is also 9km in depth. San Andra's is known as a strike slip fault; it has
displaced rocks for hundreds of miles.
The San Andra's fault is a continental transform fault that runs a length of roughly
810 miles (1,300 km) through California in the united states.
The fault's motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal motion). It forms the tectonic
boundary between the pacific plate and the north american plate.

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STIKE-SLIP FAULT (cont:)

The fault was first identified in northern California by UC
Berkeley geology professor Andrew Lawson in 1895 and
named by him after a small lake which lies in a linear valley
formed by the fault just south of San Francisco, the laguna
de san Andra's.
After the 1906 san Francisco earthquake, Lawson also
discovered that the san Andra's fault stretched southward
into southern California.
Large-scale (hundreds of miles) lateral movement along the
fault was first proposed in a 1953 paper by geologists
Mason Hill and Thomas Dibblee.

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Aerial Photograph of San Andreas Fault

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IMPACTS ON STRUCTURES AND PEOPLE

In geotechnical engineering a fault often forms a discontinuity that may

have a large influence on the mechanical behavior (strength,
deformation, etc.) of soil and rock masses in, for example, tunnel,
foundation, or slope construction. The level of a fault's activity can be
critical for (1) locating buildings, tanks, and pipelines and (2) assessing
the seismic shaking and tsunami hazard to infrastructure and people in
the vicinity. In California, for example, new building construction has
been prohibited directly on or near faults that have moved within the
Holocene Epoch (the last 11,000 years) (Hart and Bryant, 1997). Also,
faults that have shown movement during the Holocene plus Pleistocene
Epochs (the last 2.6 million years) may receive consideration, especially
for critical structures such as power plants, dams, hospitals, and schools.

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IMPACTS ON STRUCTURES AND PEOPLE

Geologists assess a fault's age by studying soil features
seen in shallow excavations and geomorphology seen in
aerial photographs. Subsurface clues include shears and
their relationships to carbonate nodules, translocated clay,
and iron oxide mineralization, in the case of older soil, and
lack of such signs in the case of younger soil. Radiocarbon
dating of organic material buried next to or over a fault
shear is often critical in distinguishing active from inactive
faults. From such relationships, paleoseismologists can
estimate the sizes of past earthquakes over the past several
hundred years, and develop rough projections of future
fault activity.

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STIKE AND DIP OF A FAULT

Strike of a fault is the line formed by the intersection of

the fault plane with a horizontal plane. The direction of
the strike, if noted precisely, should be stated as an angle
off of due north, only, since strike is a line (as opposed to
the direction of dip, which is a ray). Thus, instead of
stating a strike as "50 west of south", it should be "50
east of north". Of course, if precision were not an issue,
you could simply say "this is a northeast-striking fault".
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STIKE AND DIP OF A FAULT

Dip of a fault is given by two measurements: an angle and a direction.
You can think of the direction of dip as the direction a marble would roll
if placed on a smooth plane exactly parallel to the fault plane. This
direction is always perpendicular to the direction of the strike of the
fault plane. The angle of the dip is the maximum vertical angle of
intersection between the fault plane and a horizontal plane. To state
the dip of a fault, both a direction and an angle should be given, though
the precision used can vary. For instance, the fault above could be said
to dip "at 74 in the direction of 40 east of due south", or you could say
it dips "steeply towards the southeast". If a specific directional angle is
given, it should always be stated as some angle off of north or south -in other words, you should say "40 east of south", instead of "50 south
of east", even though they represent the same direction. Because the
dip of a plane is always perpendicular to its strike, the exact direction of
the dip does not need to be given when the strike is precisely defined.
The general practice is to simply point out which of the two potential
directions is correct, by naming a rough compass direction.

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STIKE AND DIP OF A FAULT

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JOINTS
A Joint is simply a break in Rock, which shows no considerable
displacement.
In geology, a joint is a fracture dividing rock into two sections
that have not moved away from each other.
A joint sees little or no displacement. In other kinds of
fracturing, like in a fault, the rock is parted by a visible crack
that forms a gap in the rock.
Joints push out in various directions, usually vertically. They
can have smooth, clean surfaces, or they can be scarred from
sliding against another joint. Joints usually occur as sets, with
each set made up of joints that are parallel to each other.
Joints become more and more obvious when the rock
is weathered (eroded by the elements). When water gets into
the joints, this can lead to the formation of big caves and
underground rivers.

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JOINTS (cont.)
Joints are generally the result of a rock mass adjusting to
compressive or tensional stress or cooling.
A Joint set is composed of a series of roughly parallel joints
that occur in one direction.
Tensional stress usually results in a single joint orientation that
is perpendicular to the direction of stress.
Compressive stress often generates two cross-cutting joint
sets.
The only difference between faults and joints is that joints
dont show evidence of slippage whereas faults do.
Joints are arguably the most common geologic structure and
can form in a variety of ways.
Joints can also form as a result of tectonic stress associated
with regional uplift. (as shown in next image)

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Jointed sandstone, Anza-BorregoState Park

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