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Fault (geology)

About: Fault (geology) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26732 publications have been published within this topic receiving 744535 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the sequence of back-arc basin development in the southwestern part of Okinawa Trough has apparently been crustal thinning, involving normal faulting and fault block rotation, rifting, and crustal separation with associated magmatic intrusion.

248 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparison of the spatial and temporal thickness distribution of synrift deposits with preexisting fault patterns permits to infer a sequence of distinct basin subsidence phases that can be related to changes in the ambient stress field.
Abstract: [1] The evolution of the Cenozoic Upper Rhine Graben was controlled by a repeatedly changing stress field and the reactivation of a complex set of crustal discontinuities that had come into evidence during Permo-Carboniferous times. A comparison of the spatial and temporal thickness distribution of synrift deposits with preexisting fault patterns permits to infer a sequence of distinct basin subsidence phases that can be related to changes in the ambient stress field. Reactivation of a system of late Palaeozoic fault systems, outlining troughs and highs, controlled the nucleation of initially separated middle and late Eocene basins, the depocenters of which coincided with a preexisting WSW-ENE trend. During Oligocene crustal extension the individual basins coalesced, resulting in the development of the SSW-NNE striking Upper Rhine Graben. During the late Oligocene (Chattian) change in stress field, the Upper Rhine Graben was probably reactivated as a dextral strike-slip system with the central graben segment forming a releasing bend. During the early Miocene (Aquitanian), a major reorientation of the regional stress field is held responsible for the main subsidence phase of the northern parts of the Upper Rhine Graben. This is reflected by a counterclockwise rotation and northeastward shift of the depocenter axis and later by the middle Miocene uplift and erosion of the southern parts of the Upper Rhine Graben. During the Plio-Quaternary, the Upper Rhine Graben was reactivated as a sinistral strike-slip system with the central graben segment forming a restraining bend.

248 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how the more complex rate-and-state friction formalism based on laboratory experiments might have allowed the 1911 M>6.0 earthquake near Morgan Hill, California, occurred at a relaxed site on the Calaveras fault.
Abstract: Stress shadows generated by California's two most recent great earthquakes (1857 Fort Tejon and 1906 San Francisco) substantially modified 19th and 20th century earthquake history in the Los Angeles basin and in the San Francisco Bay area. Simple Coulomb failure calculations, which assume that earthquakes can be modeled as static dislocations in an elastic half-space, have done quite well at approximating how long the stress shadows, or relaxing effects, should last and at predicting where subsequent large earthquakes will not occur. There has, however, been at least one apparent exception to the predictions of such simple models. The 1911 M>6.0 earthquake near Morgan Hill, California, occurred at a relaxed site on the Calaveras fault. We examine how the more complex rate-and-state friction formalism based on laboratory experiments might have allowed the 1911 earthquake. Rate-and-state time-to-failure calculations are consistent with the occurrence of the 1911 event just 5 years after 1906 if the Calaveras fault was already close to failure before the effects of 1906. We also examine the likelihood that the entire 78 years of relative quiet (only four M≥6 earthquakes) in the bay area after 1906 is consistent with rate-and-state assumptions, given that the previous 7 decades produced 18 M≥6 earthquakes. Combinations of rate-and-state variables can be found that are consistent with this pattern of large bay area earthquakes, assuming that the rate of earthquakes in the 7 decades before 1906 would have continued had 1906 not occurred. These results demonstrate that rate-and-state offers a consistent explanation for the 78-year quiescence and the 1911 anomaly, although they do not rule out several alternate explanations.

247 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Roald B. Færseth1
TL;DR: In this paper, the main structural elements resulting from Late Permian-Early Triassic extension have been resolved across the total width of the northern North Sea, and the authors demonstrate the interference of Permo-Triassic and Jurassic basin geometries in this area, due to major faults of the two generations dipping in opposite directions.
Abstract: The main structural elements resulting from Late Permian-Early Triassic extension have been resolved across the total width of the northern North Sea. The northern segment of the basin (north of 61°N), bounded to the west by the Hutton Fault and to the east by the Norwegian mainland, was occupied by four westerly tilted half grabens, 25–35 km in width, prior to Jurassic extension. The central segment of the basin (60°20′–61°N) exhibits a full graben beneath the Jurassic Horda Platform, flanked by half grabens tilted towards the basin margins. The change in Permo-Triassic fault-block configuration, defining structural domains, is largely constrained by a basement discontinuity which runs diagonally (NE-SW) across the basin. Maximum Jurassic extension is represented by several centres of subsidence, aligned NNE-SSW across a N-S-oriented and broader Permo-Triassic basin. Jurassic extension was concentrated within the Viking Graben proper south of 60°N, which in this area is represented by single westerly-tilted, en echelon half graben segments 20–25 km wide. The area affected by Jurassic extension becomes progressively wider to the north, again governed by the basement discontinuity, eventually encompassing the total width of the basin ( c. 200 km) north of 61°N. The central segment of the northern North Sea displays the greatest contrast in Permo-Triassic and Jurassic structural styles and basin geometry. Jurassic stretching and faulting was negligible to the east (Horda Platform), precisely the area which had been the site of maximum Permo-Triassic stretching and fault activity. It has generally been assumed that Jurassic fault configuration along the eastern margin of the central segment of the Viking Graben, to a large extent reflects the reactivation of major Permo-Triassic faults. This study demonstrates the interference of Permo-Triassic and Jurassic basin geometries in this area, due to major faults of the two generations dipping in opposite directions. As a consequence, the E-tilted Oseberg Fault Block of Jurassic origin and c. 20km in width, is underlain by a wider ( c. 35 km) and W-tilted Permo-Triassic fault-block.

247 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the Tertiary rift basins of Thailand have been previously interpreted in terms of strike-slip faulting, however, many of the trends oblique to the N-S orientation of the rift system appear to be inherited passive fabrics in the pre-rift, not active oblique strikeslip faults.

247 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20242
20234,903
202210,233
20211,417
2020998
2019966