1.1.

1 -
Natural
fracture
types
Acknowledgements. This section is an expanded, hypertext
version of material presented in the AAPG Geologic Atlas of
Borehole Images (Lacazette, 2000), which in turn grew out of
unpublished collaborative work with Terry Engelder, Wayne Narr
and Manuel Willemse. Because of this history, my friends deserve
some credit for this work but I must accept all blame.

About this section. This webpage is a guide to fracture

identification that should function like a field guide for identifying
different types of animals. The page describes the different types of
industrially significant natural rock fractures, their distinguishing
characteristics in core, outcrop and image logs, and when complete
will provide extensive links to photographs, schematic and example
log images, and other information on this and other websites. A flow-
chart is provided to help you identify fractures in core, image logs
and outcrop.

Fracture classification: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The
statement "that feature is either a fracture or a fault" is exactly
equivalent to saying "that animal is either a dog or a poodle"
because fracture is a general term for any type of brittle failure and
a fault is a specific type of fracture. So what? Is it really important
to correctly identify fractures or is classification just an academic
exercise? There are important practical reasons to use correct
fracture nomenclature:

 Different types of fractures form in different orientations

relative to the earth stresses that prevailed at the time of
fracturing. Correctly identifying fracture types is essential for
predicting the orientations of fracture populations as a whole
and therefore for planning optimum drilling directions and for
building reservoir models.
 Different types of fractures have different fluid-flow
properties.
 Certain types of fractures form only in specific rock types or
in specific geologic environments.
 Certain types of fractures have particular shape/size
distributions and obey particular density (spacing) laws
which can be used to build 3D reservoir models.
 Geological terminology should remain consistent with
fracture terminology in other technical disciplines. Poor
usage of geological fracture terminology threatens to create
yet more confusing and specialized jargon at a time when
interdisciplinary communication is increasingly important.
For example, fracture is a general term for a brittle failure of
any kind and this usage is consistent between geology and
other technical disciplines, such as engineering. The
present trend to use the term joint (a natural mode I rock
fracture) synonymously with fracture is both confusing and
incorrect.

The Way, the Truth and The Light. In the same way that a good
biological taxonomy makes it easier to systematically identify
animals, practical petroleum geology needs a simple, useful
 geological taxonomy for fractures. A well developed, reasonably
standardized rock fracture terminology that is reasonably consistent
with engineering fracture terminology has existed in the structural
geology literature for many years. The summarized, organized and
simplified version of traditional geologic fracture nomenclature
presented here provides practical (industrially useful) fracture
classifications. Please use it.

Types of Natural Rock Fractures

Let's define a natural rock fracture as follows:

Fracture. A general term for any non-sedimentary mechanical
discontinuity thought to represent a surface or zone of mechanical failure.
Chemical processes such as solution and stress corrosion may have
played an important role in the failure process. The term is used to
describe a natural feature either when available evidence is inadequate for
exact classification or when distinction between fracture types is
unimportant.
With this definition as a foundation, we can describe the different types of
natural rock fractures relevant to the oil industry.

Fracture mode. The foundation of fracture taxonomy is the fracture

mode terminology of standard engineering fracture mechanics. Figure 1
shows geologic fracture names in terms of fracture mode terminology.
Three fundamental modes of fracture are possible: mode I (mode-
one), mode II (mode-two) and mode III (mode-three). All three modes can
occur separately or in any combination. Fractures in which two or more
modes were operative are termed mixed-mode fractures. For example, a
fracture might be termed a mixed mode I-mode II fracture.

Fracture mode nomenclature is purely descriptive, not genetic. For

example, a mode I fracture can be formed by one or more mechanisms
such as hydraulic fracturing, thermal contraction, and/or diagenetic
shrinkage. Stating that a fracture is a mode I fracture only implies that the
walls moved perpendicularly away from the fracture plane when the
fracture formed.

Figure 1. Fracture mode and geologic fracture names.

Movement sense. The left and right sides of Figure 1 show opposite
senses of each mode. Under a given set of conditions, the physical
mechanisms of fracture are identical for opposite senses of mode II and
mode III failure. However, the two senses of mode I failure occur by different
physical mechanisms.

Standard geological fracture terminology is largely based on the engineering

terminology, although standard engineering terminology can be used for
natural or induced rock fractures. Note that fracture is a general term so
that joints and faults are different types of fractures.

Fracture Types and Subtypes

Joint. A natural rock fracture formed predominantly by mode I movement
(Engelder, 1987; Pollard and Aydin, 1988). Plumose surface
morphology is diagnostic of jointing (Kulander, Barton and Dean, 1979).
Unmineralized joints are normally quite permeable. Contained joints are
joints that are contained within individual beds of a brittle lithology (Gross,
1993; Gross et al, 1995). The density of contained joints can be quantified
precisely using special methods. Two special types of joints are useful
because they provide slip-sense, and sometimes slip-direction, criteria for
the fault movement. Pinnate joints are a type of joint that forms adjacent
to faults during fault movement and/or propagation (Hancock, 1985). Tail
joints or wing cracks form at the tip of a propagating fault (Horii and
Nemat-Nasser, 1985).

Fault. A type of natural rock fracture formed predominantly by mode II

and/or mode III movements. Natural rock fractures that initially formed as
joints and were then reactivated as sliding-mode fractures are also termed
faults. (Some workers use the term faulted joint.) Faults have a wide
range of morphologies and fill types. Faults range from highly permeable
to highly impermeable depending on the manner of formation and type of
fill. Fault slip-sense and slip-direction often can be determined
from surface features. Fault-type names reflect their slip-sense and slip-
direction. Fault nomenclature is reviewed here and in standard structural
geology texts (e.g. Twiss and Moore 1992).

Fault zone. A fault represented by a zone of intensely deformed rock >1

cm thick. The thickness limitation insures routine application of the term
only to zones thick enough to clearly distinguish in image logs. In any
specific case, the distinction between a fault-zone and a fault is dependent
on the user's interest in the fault rocks and their fluid-flow properties. If
these are not of interest then thick fault-zones may simply be
termed faults. Similarly, zones thinner than 1 cm may be termed fault
zones if fine-scale fracture properties are of interest and the features are
distinguishable with the available data. Fault zone refers to the intensely
deformed volume of breccia, gouge and/or smear across which most of
the slip occurred and does not encompass damage (such as pinnate
jointing) in the halo around the fault zone. In other words, material in a
fault zone represents disrupted material that is no longer continuous with
the parent rock.

Deformation band. A natural rock fracture defined by a zone of grain

crushing and compaction developed by mixed anti-mode I + mode II and/or
III movement. Deformation bands are cm-scale braided accumulations
of crushed zones roughly 0.5-1 mm thick that contain
characteristic ramp-and-eye structures. Deformation bands often
develop as conjugate sets. They are important to the petroleum industry
because they only form in highly porous (>15%) sandstones and chalks
(which make good reservoirs) and because the material within a
deformation band is about 3 orders of magnitude less permeable than
the host rock. Deformation bands cause severe compartmentalization
of oil fields in the North Sea, Indonesia, US and elsewhere. (Antonellini
and Aydin, 1995a, 1995b)

Compaction band. Compaction bands are unusual features similar to

deformation bands. However, they develop by pure anti-mode I movement
and may lack the characteristic braided appearance. They can be planar to
wavy and may even develop as networks with a mudcrack-like
geometry indicating constrictional strain (very rare). Volume loss may
be accommodated by extensive grain crushing, in which case compaction
bands can be considered a special case of deformation bands. However,
some compaction bands develop by grain sliding and rearrangement of
grains with little or no crushing so that they do not meet a strict definition of
fracture. Compaction bands developed primarily by grain sliding, are
rare, and develop only in highly porous (>20%) sandstones having grain
sizes of at least 0.3-0.8 mm. (Mollema and Antonellini, 1996)

Stylolite (pressure solution seam). A stylolite (pronounced style-o-

light) is a zone of insoluble residue produced by stress-enhanced
dissolution. Stylolites typically have a cone-in-cone structure that
produces a characteristic zig-zag appearance in cross section. Most
geologists do not consider stylolites to be fractures. I used to think the
same thing, but I was wrong. Stylolites are fractures! They are stress-
corrosion anticracks! Before you blow a fuse, please read this and sleep
on it.

Stylolites should serve as flow barriers because the insoluble residue is

very fine-grained and clay-rich. However, stylolites are very weak and are
easily reactivated as joints by later tectonic events. They are often
reported to be permeable in hydrocarbon reservoirs. A slickolite is a type
of stylolite in which the teeth are inclined <90° to the plane of the stylolite
(Hancock, 1985). Slickolites form at an angle to s1, often by dissolution
along a preexisting fracture. Slickolites are surfaces of shear displacement
as well as shortening.

Induced fracture. Any rock fracture produced by human activities, such

as drilling, accidental or intentional hydrofracturing, core handling, etc.
(Kulander, Dean and Ward,1990; Distinguishing natural from induced
fractures in image logs).

1.1.2 - Fracture orientations relative to the principal

stress orientations

Earth stress. Stress is defined as the force per unit area acting on a
plane. Any stress state at a point in a solid body can be described
completely by the orientations and magnitudes of three stresses
called principal stresses. The principal stresses are oriented
perpendicular to each other and to the three planes of no resolved shear
stress at the point. The drawing shows a block of rock having constant
stress throughout. The symbol (sigma) designates compressive or
tensile stress. Subscripts identify specific stresses. The principal stresses
are defined: 1 > 2 > 3. Compressive stress and shortening strain are
considered positive in rock mechanics and structural geology because in
the earth all three principal stresses are always compressive (except
around underground voids such as caves or very near to the earth's
surface). Joints (extensional fractures) seem paradoxical because they are
one of the most common types of natural rock fracture even though they
require an effectively tensile driving stress. Pore-fluid pressure drives most
joints by producing tensile effective stress through poroelastic loading of
flaws that are orders of magnitude larger than typical pores.
See Mechanics of jointing for a detailed discussion.
Figure 2. Significance of fracture orientations.

Joints (GREEN).

 The tip of a growing joint is always perpendicular to 3 at the joint

tip during propagation.
 Curved joints indicate temporal and/or spatial variations in the
orientation of 3 during joint growth.

Faults (RED).

 New faults in virgin rock form in each lithology with an

approximately constant acute angle between 1 and the two
conjugate fault orientations. This angle ranges from 25° to 40° but is
normally about 30°.
  Pre-existing discontinuities with a wide range of orientations can
be activated as faults, provided they are not oriented perpendicular
to a principal stress.
 Deformation bands (faults with an anti-mode I component) also
tend to form at 30° to 1 but can form at any angle <90°.

Stylolites (BLUE) and compaction bands (not shown) form perpendicular

to 1.

1.1.3 - Regional Fracture Orientations

Figures 3, 4 and 5 represent the three most common regional earth stress
regimes which are termed the Andersonian stress regimes after the
geologist (E.M. Anderson) who first recognized and described them in
1905. In Andersonian regimes one principal stress is vertical so that the
other two are horizontal. Be aware that although Andersonian regimes are
the most common, inclined stressfields are not unusual. The figures
schematically show the average regional orientations in which different
types of natural fractures form relative to Andersonian stress regimes.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.
Figure 5.

Natural fracture orientations are often unrelated to the orientations of the

present-day stresses in a rock mass for the following reasons (Engelder
1992):

 Fracture orientation reflects the orientations of the stresses in the

fractured rock at the time of fracture formation.
  Regional stress regimes change through time.
 Most natural fractures formed in the geological past under the
influence of paleostresses (ancient stresses) that no longer prevail.

The orientation and density of fracture sets may vary with position in a region
of interest because stress regimes vary in space as well as in time even if the
regional stress maintains a constant orientation. Local stresses may differ
significantly in orientation and/or magnitude from regional stresses due to
folding, faulting, lithological differences, diagenesis, pore-pressure variations
and other influences. (Engelder 1992). For detail on localized fracturing read
the following pages on this website: 1.3.2 Fracturing during extensional
fault-bend folding, 1.3.3 Fracturing during contractional fault-bend
folding, 1.3.4 Localized fracturing during wrench faulting, Mechanics of
jointing, Mechanics of faulting.

Fault slip and fault names

This section reviews basic fault nomenclature. If you're already

comfortable with fault nomenclature then skip this section and go directly
to the Fracture identification flowchart or return to the technical
directory to check-out other fun stuff, like fracturing during folding or
learn how to avoid making hideous mistakes when you interpret
breakouts.

Figure 6 shows the basic fault-slip parameters. The blue arrow indicates
the right-hand rule strike, the green arrow dip. The hangingwall is the fault
block above the fault plane; the footwall is the fault block below the fault
plane.
Figure 6: Fault slip
Fault heave and throw can be deceptive because:

 Heave and throw only show one component of fault slip. A fault with a
small heave or throw could have a large amount of strike-slip
movement.
 Vertical throw is very different from stratigraphic throw. This
distinction may be very important in directional drilling.

Figure 7: Vertical throw vs. stratigraphic throw

Basic fault names based on slip direction. Fault names indicate the rake of
the movement direction of the hangingwall. Rake is the angle of the hangingwall
slip-vector measured in the fault plane. There are many different rake notations,
but this website measures rake from the dip vector. Positive rakes are clockwise
(as seen looking down on the fault plane) and rake can range either from +180°
to -180° or from 0°-360° depending on your preference. I prefer the +180° to -
180° scheme because rakes with absolute values <90° indicate normal slip,
>90° indicate reverse slip, positive rakes indicate right-lateral movement, and
negative rakes indicate left-lateral movement.

Figure 8 shows how fault names relate to the hangingwall-slip rake. The
diagram looks perpendicularly down onto the fault plane. The green arrow is the
dip-vector; the blue arrow is the right-hand rule strike. In normal usage faults
with slip-vectors lying within 10°-15° of the dip or
strike orientation (not direction) are termed normal/reverse or right-/left-lateral
faults, respectively. Faults with slip-vectors outside of these ranges are given
compound names. The vertical or horizontal slip component of a vertical or
horizontal fault is named arbitrarily.

Right-lateral vs. left-lateral. Imagine that you are standing on one side of a
steeply dipping fault as it moves. If objects on the opposite block appear to be
moving to your right, then the fault has a right-lateral component. If objects on
the opposite block appear to be moving to your left, then the fault has a left-
lateral component. The apparent movement is the same whether you are
standing on the hangingwall or footwall.

Figure 8. The fault name describes the rake of the slip vector.

Special fault names. Geologists use many different names for special types
of faults. These names have complex and far-reaching implications that depend
to some extent on the user. When in doubt, use a simple name based on the
slip-sense and direction because you will never be wrong and everyone will
understand you. Gee, those sound like pretty good reasons to avoid specialized
jargon entirely....

Some important types of specialized fault names:

Wrench vs. strike-slip fault. These terms are synonyms and indicate a fault
with a slip-vector closely parallel to the fault strike. Some geologists reserve the
term wrench for large, regional strike-slip faults, steeply-dipping regional strike-
slip faults or as a synonym for tear fault.

Thrust fault. This name once meant any reverse fault with a dip-angle of 30°
or less. Now the term indicates faults with an originally low dip-angle that
formed during regional compressional deformation. A single thrust fault may
change its orientation as it crosscuts different lithologies. Folding can reorient
thrusts so that they may have a variety of angles today.
Detachment fault. A regional, low-angle, listric normal fault formed during
crustal extension.

Tear fault. Often used to indicate a steeply-dipping wrench fault that bounds
or cuts the hangingwall of a thrust or normal fault, also used for mode III faults.