Exceptionally well exposed normal faults within the Solite Quarry of the Dan River rift basin range in length from a few millimetres to a few metres and are possibly the smallest visible faults studied to date. Displacement is greatest at or near the center of isolated faults and decreases toward the fault tips. Relay structures form between closely overlapping faults. The distribution of fault sizes in the study area follows a power-law (fractal) relation, and the maximum observed displacement scales linearly with fault length. The new fault data extend the global data set to more than eight orders of magnitude of fault length and indicate that there is no significant change in displacement geometry and the linear lengthdisplacement scaling relation between small and large faults.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.