LECTURE 3 THE GEOMETRIES OF FAULTS (CONTINUED)

View of the Arnaboll Thrust, NW Scotland. Pre-Cambrian Gneisses are thrust over
View of the Glencoul Thrust, NW Scotland. Pre-Cambrian Gneisses are thrust over
Cambrian sediments. The thrust is lined with c. 1 m of mylonite (black stripe).
Cambrian sediments. Note the undeformed nature of the underlying Cambrian.

LECTURE PLAN

1) CONTRACTION FAULTS (THRUSTS AND REVERSE Gneiss

Cambrian

FAULTS).
2) STRIKE-SLIP FAULTS

Back to Back to
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Found in compressional tectonic regimes. Where they from at a Restored Cross-Section

high angle to unfolded stratigraphy >30o, they are called Thrust trajectory

reverse faults. Low angle examples (<30o)-) are called thrusts.

Deformed Cross-Section

Thrusts often exhibit a staircase trajectory (Ramp/Flat

Geometry). Long bedding parallel glide zones are called Flats
Short steep angled fault which cuts across the stratigraphy are
called Ramps. The following terminology should be noted:-
Footwall Flat Footwall Ramp
hanging-wall ramp; hanging-wall flat; hanging-wall cut-off; Hangingwall Flat Hangingwall Ramp

footwall ramp; footwall flat; footwall cut-off

Fault propagation fold cut by a propagating thrust
Movement over a footwall with ramps and flats forces
geometrically necessary folds to grow, known as fault-bend
folds (snakes head structures in McClay's book). The anticlines
which form are rootless anticlines under these circumstances. Back to
text

Folds which accommodate strain at the terminations of faults Course Homepage Contact Staff
(fault tips) are known as fault propagation folds or tip-line folds.
Lecture 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Practical 1 2 3 4 5 6 71 8 9 10
3D Geometry
Lateral Footwall Ramp
Frontal Footwall Ramp
1) Slipped region surrounded by a zone of deformation known
Oblique Footwall Ramp
as a ductile bead. Takes the form of a cleavage front, or an Footwall Flat

anticline-syncline pair. Footwall Flat

View of the 3D geometry of thrust surfaces

Thrust fault terminations are known as a tip-line. The tip line (similar complexity exist for the hangingwall)

often exists within a tip line fold (fault propagation fold). Back to
text

2) Complex ramp geometries can exist in 3-dimensions.

ing
dd
Be
Frontal Ramps:- Perpendicular to the movement direction.
Lateral Ramps:- Parallel to the movement direction.
Oblique Ramps:- Oblique to the movement direction. View of a thrust within the Cretaceous Chalk
at Lulworth Cove, southern England. The
hangingwall beds are overturned and cut by the
thrust (hangingwall ramp). The close-up shows
Thrust faults may be linked by strike-slip faults which root into Back to
a gouge composed of crushed chalk and
siliceous flint nodules cutting fractured chalk.
text

the floor thrust.

Complex internal strains result as the hanging-wall moves over Back to

text

a ramp and is folded and then unfolded.

In higher grade terrains, thrusting may be accompanied by Thrust movement

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intense folding and the development of penetrative foliations. A

stair-case trajectory may not develop.

3) Back-thrusts may develop producing triangle zones and pop- 2 views (one at sunset) of a stratigraphy-parallel thrust (hangingwall flat on a
footwall flat) repeating Mesozoic carbonates in Haut Giffre, French Alps

ups.
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Pop-up
Triangle zone Start of this Lecture
Basic Rules for thrust faults
Imbicates of Cambrian sediments in the Moine thrust belt near Loch Eriboll.
The thrusts are at the bases of the prominent cliffs.
1) Thrusts bring older rocks over younger rocks.

2) Thrusts cut up through the stratigraphy in their movement direction.

3) Generally propagate in the direction of movement.

4) Younger thrusts carry older thrusts in their hanging-wall. This is

known as a piggy-back thrust geometry.

5) Higher thrust sheets are rotated and folded as lower thrust sheets
move over ramps. Back to
text

6) Ramp angles are generally 15-30o to bedding unless the rocks Undeformed

close to the thrust contain high strains and are intensely folded.
1st stage
1
Movement direction of thrust faults
2nd stage
1) The Bow and Arrow rule. In plan view, thrusts are commonly curved. 1 2

The movement direction is generally normal to the "string" formed by

connecting the two ends of the bow. Final deformed
1 2 3

2) Movement is normal to frontal ramps and the folds above frontal 3 Imbricate thrusts

Numbers indicate the sequence in which the thrusts formed.

ramps. Active faults shown in red; inactive faults shown in black. Thrust
sheets 1 and 2 are carried "piggy-back" on the lower and younger
thrust.
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text

3) Movement is parallel to lateral ramps.

4) Movement direction an be documented by measuring the

orientation of lineations on fault planes or the orientation of mineral Start of this Lecture
stretching lineations at higher grades.

5) In high-grade, ductile regimes, folds which initially form

perpendicular to the movement direction may become rotated into
parallelism.
5) STRIKE-SLIP FAULTS Back to
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These are generally vertical faults with horizontal movement directions

The geometrical evolution of strike slip faults was first investigated by Formation of Riedel Shears and then a major fault
3D geometry of
Riedel Shears
deforming clay models.
3

The orientation of the structures associated with strike-slip faults can 1

R

be easily remembered by drawing a regional strain ellipse. Folds and

P

R'

contraction faults are 90o to s1, whereas extensional features are 90o R'

to s3. P
R
Strain ellipses and structures associated with strike-slip
Strain ellipses and structures 1 Back to
3 associated with strike-slip

Initiate with the development of Riedel Shears (R1 & R2) orientated at
text
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30o to the maximum principle stress s1. Movement is concentrated

along R1 shears which are synthetic to the direction of maximum (K)
ght o
f Ma
lacca
N
Sa nta M
oni
ca M
ount
ains

resolved shear stress. The major through-going wrench fault is

Strai
Inglewood Field
Playa del Rey
Potrero Field

orientated at 45o to s1, and grows by the linking and coalescence of

Field
10 km

San
Rosecrons Fields

ta M
El Segundo Field
Dominquez Field

onic
Barisan Mountains

existing R1 shears and P Shears.

Fault

a Ba
Torrance Field
Long Beach Field

y
Indian Ocean 200 km Pal Seal Beach Field
Hil os Ver
Location ls des
Wilmington Field
Huntington Beach Field
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San P
text edro

P shears and antithetic X shears may develop.

Bay Huntington Beach
Tidelands Pool
San Joaquin Hills

Oil-fields,
showing fold axis

Secondary wrench faults (antithetic and synthetic may occur along the Back to
text

Riedel shear directions, and these in turn develop their own secondary Offset dyke
fault patterns. Offset dyke

Strike-slip faults form in en echelon systems and can be termed right-

stepping or left-stepping. Dextral
Sinistral
(left-lateral)
(right-lateral)

They are also ssociated with en echelon folds whose axis are 90o to Back to
text

s1.

Bends in the fault trace can be cause by P or R1 shears becoming Start of this Lecture
dominant and controlling the majority of displacement. These are
termed releasing bends and restraining bends.
Releasing bends are associated with pull-apart basins and restraining
bends are associated with localised compressional deformation.

When the movement sense is oblique to the orientation of main fault

areas of transtension and transpression occur.

Map C E
A

D F
B Releasing
Restraining The last thing this
Bend Bend
Cross-sections eye saw was
the arrow! ( )
B A

F E
D C

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Start of this Lecture

FURTHER READING AVAILABLE
FROM THE ELECTRONIC LIBRARY
Ahlgren, S. G. 2001. The nucleation and
evolution of Riedel shear zones as
deformation bands in porous sandstone,
Journal of Structural Geology, 23, 1203-1214
A. M. Casas, D. Gapais, T. Nalpas, K.
Besnard and T. Romn-Berdiel, 2001.
Analogue models of transpressive systems,
Journal of Structural Geology, 23, 733-743
Steven E. Schulz and James P. Evans, 2000,
Mesoscopic structure of the Punchbowl
Fault, Southern California and the geologic
and geophysical structure of active strike-
slip faults, Journal of Structural Geology, 22,
913-930
Amgalan Bayasgalan, James Jackson, Jean-
Franois Ritz and Sebastien Carretier, 1999.
`Forebergs', flower structures, and the
development of large intra-continental
strike-slip faults: the Gurvan Bogd fault
system in Mongolia, Journal of Structural
Geology, 21, 1285-1302
Michael L. Curtis, 1999. Structural and
kinematic evolution of a Miocene to Recent
sinistral restraining bend: the Montejunto
massif, Portugal, Journal of Structural
Geology, 21, 39-53
P. G. Kelly and D. J. SandersonD. C. P.
Peacock, 1998, Linkage and evolution of
conjugate strike-slip fault zones in
limestones of Somerset and Northumbria,
Journal of Structural Geology, 20,
1477-1493
Claudia J. LewisJoann M. Stock, 1998. Late
Miocene to Recent transtensional tectonics
in the Sierra San Fermn, northeastern Baja
California, Mexico, Journal of Structural
Geology, 20, 1043-1063
FURTHER READING AVAILABLE
FROM THE ELECTRONIC LIBRARY
R. A. Price 2001. An evaluation of models for
the kinematic evolution of thrust and fold
belts: structural analysis of a transverse
fault zone in the Front Ranges of the
Canadian Rockies north of Banff, Alberta,
Journal of Structural Geology, 23, 1079-1088
Hemin A. Koyi and Antonio Teixell, 1999.
Where is the footwall flat? A cautionary
note on template constraints, Journal of
Structural Geology, 21, 373-377
Fernando NioHerv Philip and Jean Chry,
1998. The role of bed-parallel slip in the
formation of blind thrust faults, Journal of
Structural Geology, 20, 503-516
John WickhamGeorge Moeckel, 1997.
Restoration of structural cross-sections,
Journal of Structural Geology, 19, 975-986
Enrico Tavarnelli, 1997. Structural evolution
of a foreland fold-and-thrust belt: the
Umbria-Marche Apennines, Italy, Journal of
Structural Geology, 19, 523-534
F. Mouthereau, O. Lacombe, B. Deffontaines,
J. Angelier and S. Brusset, 2001. Deformation
history of the southwestern Taiwan foreland
thrust belt: insights from tectono-
sedimentary analyses and balanced cross-
sections, Tectonophysics, 333, 293-318
E. O. Cristallini and V. A. Ramos, 2000.
Thick-skinned and thin-skinned thrusting in
the La Ramada fold and thrust belt: crustal
evolution of the High Andes of San Juan,
Argentina (32SL), Tectonophysics, 317, 205-
235
Emanuel J. M. WillemseDavid C. P. Anatolian block, Tectonophysics, 2000, 322,
PeacockAtilla Aydin, 1997. Nucleation and 243-264
growth of strike-slip faults in limestones
from Somerset, U.K., Journal of Structural
Geology, 19, 1461-1477

An L.-J. and C. G. Sammis, 1996.

Development of strike-slip faults: shear
experiments in granular materials and clay
using a new technique, Journal of Structural
Geology, 18, 1061-1077

Michel CorsiniAlain VauchezRenaud Caby,

1996. Ductile duplexing at a bend of a
continental-scale strike-slip shear zone:
example from NE Brazil, Journal of
Structural Geology, 18, 385-394

Aykut Barka, H. Serdar Akyz, Harvey A.

Cohen and Fred Watchorn, 2000. Tectonic
evolution of the Niksar and TasovaErbaa
pull-apart basins, North Anatolian Fault
Zone: their significance for the motion of the