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An active fault is a fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future. Geologists commonly consider faults to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,000 years. [1] Active faulting is considered to be a geologic hazard – one related to earthquakes as
Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may also displace slowly, by aseismic creep. [2] A fault plane is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A fault trace or fault line is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface.
Types of faulting. Anderson's theory of faulting, devised by Ernest Masson Anderson in 1905, is a way of classifying geological faults by use of principal stress. [1] [2] A fault is a fracture in the surface of the Earth that occurs when rocks break under extreme stress. [3] Movement of rock along the fracture occurs in faults.
Not all named fracture zones are active, indeed only the central portion of those still forming usually is, in an area of active transform faulting associated with a mid-ocean ridge. Classic fracture zones remain significant ocean floor features with usually different aged rocks on either side of the fracture zone due to past tectonic processes .
A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. [1] [2] The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrasting resistance and the displacement of land surface by movement along the fault.
Tectonic subsidence is the sinking of the Earth's crust on a large scale, relative to crustal-scale features or the geoid. [1] The movement of crustal plates and accommodation spaces produced by faulting [2] brought about subsidence on a large scale in a variety of environments, including passive margins, aulacogens, fore-arc basins, foreland basins, intercontinental basins and pull-apart basins.
The differences in faulting motions might favour or disfavour certain permeability altering mechanisms to occur. [1] However, the main controlling factor of the permeability is the rock type. [ 1 ] Since the characteristics of rock control how a fault zone can be developed and how fluids can move.
An element of rock under stress. Fault mechanics is a field of study that investigates the behavior of geologic faults.. Behind every good earthquake is some weak rock. Whether the rock remains weak becomes an important point in determining the potential for bigger earthquakes.