Growth of normal faults: Displacement-length scaling

Dawers, Nancye H.; Anders, Mark H.; Scholz, Christopher H.

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1993)021<1107:gonfdl>2.3.co;2

Cited by 463 publications

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“…[10] We begin with the Volcanic Tablelands data of Dawers et al [1993]. Because those faults were all selected to be isolated (non-interacting), are in the same rock type, the Bishop (welded) tuff, and were measured on the same horizon, these data are likely to provide the best test of scale invariance.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slip tapers at the tips of faults and earthquake ruptures

Scholz

Lawler

2004

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] Slip gradients near the tips of earthquake ruptures and faults are typically linear. For non-interacting faults or earthquake ruptures, tip tapers are scale invariant, and about 1 -2 orders of magnitude larger for faults than for earthquakes. For fault tips interacting with other faults, the taper can be as much as a factor of 10 greater than for non-interacting faults. For earthquake ruptures, taper is also greater by as much as a factor of 10 for tips of rupture segments in the interior of the main rupture, tips in which the earthquake has propagated to the end of the fault, and tips which interact with the stress-drop of a previous earthquake on the same fault. Tip taper for faults increases with the strength of the wall rock. These observations are consistent with fracture mechanics models in which inelastic deformation occurs in a volume surrounding the crack tip.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slip tapers at the tips of faults and earthquake ruptures

Scholz

Lawler

2004

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…The D/L ratio appears to be independent of fault length (Cowie and Scholz, 1992a) and to have the same range of values on Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury (Cowie and Scholz, 1992a;Dawers et al, 1993;Clark and Cox, 1996;Schultz, 1997;Watters et al, 2000). No D/L ratios have been published for normal faults on the icy satellites.…”

Section: Displacement: Length Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Terrestrial faults show a wide variety of scatter in g (e.g. Dawers et al, 1993;Cartwright et al, 1995), so that some caution needs to be used when interpreting the results for individual faults. Nonetheless, to demonstrate the utility of this approach, we here apply Eq.…”

Section: Displacement: Length Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Normal faulting on Europa: implications for ice shell properties

Nimmo¹,

Schenk²

2006

Journal of Structural Geology

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We identify two likely normal faults on Europa, of lengths z30 and 11 km. A simple flexural model of fault-related topography gives effective elastic thicknesses of 1.2 and 0.15 km, respectively, and the resulting inferred fault strength is of order 1 MPa. The maximum fault displacement: length ratio for each fault is z0.02, comparable with values on silicate planets. We combine this observation with a modified linear elastic fracture mechanics model to conclude that the shear modulus of the Europan surface must be significantly less than that for unfractured ice. The low value of the modulus is probably due to near-surface fracturing or porosity, which will affect the material's radar properties and seismic velocities. For a likely reduction in shear modulus of an order of magnitude, the driving stresses inferred are about 6e8 MPa, much higher than present-day diurnal tidal stresses. However, stresses approaching these values can be generated by non-synchronous rotation or polar wander, while stresses exceeding these values arise during ice shell freezing. If the entire larger fault breaks, it will generate an event of seismic magnitude M s z5.3.

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“…For example, globally compiled datasets of fault length (L) and maximum fault displacement (D max ) exhibit a linear relationship between these two parameters, where D max is consistently ∼ 3 % of fault length (Walsh and Watterson, 1988;Cowie and Scholz, 1992;Dawers et al, 1993;Schlische et al, 1996;Manighetti et al, 2001). These findings have led to models whereby single isolated faults grow through repeated earthquakes in a selfsimilar fashion, propagating laterally at their tips while accumulating displacement maxima near their centers (Drawers et al, 1993).…”

Section: Relationships Between Fault Growth Linkage and Footwall Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fault system properties including length, width, and displacement often follow quasi-universal scaling relationships (Walsh and Watterson, 1988;Cowie and Scholz, 1992;Dawers et al, 1993;Nicol et al, 1996;Schlische et al, 1996;Gupta and Scholz, 2000). For example, globally compiled datasets of fault length (L) and maximum fault displacement (D max ) exhibit a linear relationship between these two parameters, where D max is consistently ∼ 3 % of fault length (Walsh and Watterson, 1988;Cowie and Scholz, 1992;Dawers et al, 1993;Schlische et al, 1996;Manighetti et al, 2001).…”

Section: Relationships Between Fault Growth Linkage and Footwall Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

River profile response to normal fault growth and linkage: an example from the Hellenic forearc of south-central Crete, Greece

2017

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Abstract. Topography is a reflection of the tectonic and geodynamic processes that act to uplift the Earth's surface and the erosional processes that work to return it to base level. Numerous studies have shown that topography is a sensitive recorder of tectonic signals. A quasi-physical understanding of the relationship between river incision and rock uplift has made the analysis of fluvial topography a popular technique for deciphering relative, and some argue absolute, histories of rock uplift. Here we present results from a study of the fluvial topography from south-central Crete, demonstrating that river longitudinal profiles indeed record the relative history of uplift, but several other processes make it difficult to recover quantitative uplift histories. Prior research demonstrates that the south-central coastline of Crete is bound by a large ( ∼ 100 km long) E-W striking composite normal fault system. Marine terraces reveal that it is uplifting between 0.1 and 1.0 mm yr −1 . These studies suggest that two normal fault systems, the offshore Ptolemy and onshore South-Central Crete faults, linked together in the recent geologic past (ca. 0.4-1 My BP). Fault mechanics predict that when adjacent faults link into a single fault the uplift rate in footwalls of the linkage zone will increase rapidly. We use this natural experiment to assess the response of river profiles to a temporal jump in uplift rate and to assess the applicability of the stream power incision model to this setting. Using river profile analysis we show that rivers in south-central Crete record the relative uplift history of fault growth and linkage as theory predicts that they should. Calibration of the commonly used stream power incision model shows that the slope exponent, n, is ∼ 0.5, contrary to most studies that find n ≥ 1. Analysis of fluvial knickpoints shows that migration distances are not proportional to upstream contributing drainage area, as predicted by the stream power incision model. Maps of the transformed stream distance variable, χ, indicate that drainage basin instability, drainage divide migration, and river capture events complicate river profile analysis in south-central Crete. Waterfalls are observed in southern Crete and appear to operate under less efficient and different incision mechanics than assumed by the stream power incision model. Drainage area exchange and waterfall formation are argued to obscure linkages between empirically derived metrics and quasi-physical descriptions of river incision, making it difficult to quantitatively interpret rock uplift histories from river profiles in this setting. Karst hydrology, break down of assumed drainage area discharge scaling, and chemical weathering might also contribute to the failure of the stream power incision model to adequately predict the behavior of the fluvial system in south-central Crete.

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Growth of normal faults: Displacement-length scaling

Cited by 463 publications

References 0 publications

Slip tapers at the tips of faults and earthquake ruptures

Slip tapers at the tips of faults and earthquake ruptures

Normal faulting on Europa: implications for ice shell properties

River profile response to normal fault growth and linkage: an example from the Hellenic forearc of south-central Crete, Greece

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