Railsback's Petroleum Geoscience and Subsurface Geology

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Structural maps, Part II: normal faults -3368 -3574

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Geologists commonly make structure contour maps, folded very sharply. A brittle stratum subjected to the -3448

which are maps interpreting the elevation/depth of strati- stresses required to produce this configuration would be -3635
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graphic horizons (or of other surfaces of interest). For more more like to break to give a fault, presumably a
petroleum geologists, these maps represent the surfaces normal fault.
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of sedimentary rock bodies, commonly sandstones and The middle map below is contoured and marked with -3781
limestones, that bend broadly to give gentle folds but that a dip-slip fault in its central zone of offset. Taken literally, -4950
break rather than fold sharply. it implies that the contoured horizon exists everywhere in -3428
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Mapping in areas of normal faults commonly requires the map area, which would require a vertical fault. The
attention to these concerns. The uncontoured map at map at lower right more nearly meets most geologists' ex- -4491
right provides an example that students can contour as pectations by showing a normal fault. To do so accurately, -3248
desired. Someone envisioning a continuous surface will the map must include an area above the fault in which the -3684
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likely contour the data as shown on the map at lower left. horizon no longer exists (the horizon would be “missing
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However, the continuous surface is improbable, because section” in a well drilled in this narrow area). -3445

it requires that the stratum of relatively brittle rock be twice

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Monocline with improbably Vertical dip-slip fault Normal fault LBR 9/2011
sharp curvature of folding 4320StrxrMaps01NormalFaults01.odg