The shapes, major axis orientations and displacement patterns of fault surfaces

Nicol, Andrew; Watterson, J.; Walsh, John J.; Childs, Conrad

doi:10.1016/s0191-8141(96)80047-2

Cited by 332 publications

(215 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…One approach to quantifying fault dimensions has been to apply rock mechanics models, which factor in rock type and strength to predict fault dimensions (e.g., Nicol et al, 1996;Scholz, 2005). Most of this work is based on studies of faulting in rock types different from the rocks in which the tunnels of Rainier Mesa have been mined.…”

Section: Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thoughts Regarding the Dimensions of Faults at Rainier and Aqueduct Mesas, Nye County, Nevada, Based on Surface and Underground Mapping

Drellack¹,

Prothro²,

Townsend³

et al. 2011

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The geologic setting and history, along with observations through 50 years of detailed geologic field work, show that large-displacement (i.e., greater than 30 meters of displacement) syn-to post-volcanic faults are rare in the Rainier Mesa area. Faults observed in tunnels and drill holes are mostly tight, with small displacements (most less than 1.5 meters) and small associated damage zones. Faults are much more abundant in the zeolitized tuffs than in the overlying vitric tuffs, and there is little evidence that faults extend downward from the tuff section through the argillic paleocolluvium into pre-Tertiary rocks. The differences in geomechanical characteristics of the various tuff lithologies at Rainier Mesa suggest that most faults on Rainer Mesa are limited to the zeolitic units sandwiched between the overlying vitric bedded tuffs and the underlying pre-Tertiary units (lower carbonate aquifer-3, lower clastic confining unit-1, and Mesozoic granite confining unit).iv This page intentionally left blank.

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Section: Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thoughts Regarding the Dimensions of Faults at Rainier and Aqueduct Mesas, Nye County, Nevada, Based on Surface and Underground Mapping

Drellack¹,

Prothro²,

Townsend³

et al. 2011

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“…However, unlike tectonic normal faults, they are typically strata-bound, and are organized into 'tiers', with the vast majority of upper and lower tips occurring at a particular stratigraphic datum, or close to that datum [Cartwright and Dewhurst, 1998], suggesting a strong lithological control to their propagation [cf. Nicol et al, 1996].…”

Section: Field Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These data were selected from polygonal fault arrays where the vertical displacement variation was generally symmetric about a mid-point (see Figure 1b), and where there was little evidence of anomalously weak layers near the base because they distort displacement distribution on individual faults [Watterson et al, 2000]. Similarly, the aspect ratio of faults is known to impact scaling relationships for faults [Nicol et al, 1996], hence, these data come from faults with aspect ratios strike lengthto-height between 0.8 and 2.6. It is likely that the data scatter may be partly due to interactions between faults which have the potential to retard tip-line propagation in some cases ; to minimize this effect, we selected faults where either or both their lateral tips were not involved in hard-linked intersections.…”

Section: Field Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Displacement field in contraction‐driven faults

2010

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[1] We investigate the distribution of strain and deformation in the host sediment that arises once a contraction-driven shear fault has localized and propagated under a zero-lateral strain condition. Numerical modeling of displacement distributions compares well with those measured using 3D seismic data. The parameters that determine the displacement field for a single normal fault embedded in sediments are fault height, overburden effective stress, stiffness, and residual friction angle (or post-peak strength). Proximity to the free boundary biases the displacement pattern, which becomes asymmetric. Although the measured displacements and numerical predictions are similar, the measured magnitude requires pronounced low stiffness of the sediment as well as low post peak shear strength. This requirement suggests that sediments hosting contraction-driven shear faults most likely have high porosity and high clay fraction and have undergone diagenetic reactions involving significant mineral dissolution. The diagenetic evolution of the sediment and its current composition may explain the global scaling relationship between the measured displacement and fault height for polygonal fault systems.

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“…The displacement on the fault surface is assumed to be maximum near the fault center, and to decrease slowly toward an ellipsoidal fault tip line (Figure 1.a,b). This theoretical displacement distribution is widely accepted for isolated blind normal faults , 1988, 1989Nicol et al, 1996;Kim and Sanderson, 2005;Osagiede et al, 2014) and has been used to validate or to create valid interpretations of poorly seismically imaged isolated faults (Chapman and Meneilly, 1990;Freeman et al, 1990). Several authors have also integrated fault kinematics, i.e., the distribution of the slip on and close to the fault surface, directly into the modeling process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The length and the height of the fault can be deduced from fault picks and constrained by published scaling laws between fault length and maximum displacement (e.g., Nicol et al, 1996;Torabi and Berg, 2011). Choosing the width of the fault operator is more subjective.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A parametric fault displacement model to introduce kinematic control into modeling faults from sparse data

et al. 2018

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Fault-related displacements impact oil and gas flow predictions at reservoir scales. In this contribution, we integrate a quantitative description of fault-related deformation directly embedded into the structural modeling workflow. Consistent fault displacements are produced by using numerical fault operators that deform horizons in accordance with theoretical isolated fault displacement models to generate kinematically consistent structural models.We compare structural modeling approaches based on such fault operators with those relying on interpolation. Several synthetic cross-sections are generated from a reference high-resolution structural model of the Santos Basin, Brazil. Models are reconstructed from this 2D synthetic sparse dataset using both methods. Their ability to produce consistent structural models is assessed by comparing reconstructed and reference models. On this example, kinematic modeling improves the quality of automatically generated models when only few and poor quality observations are available, thus reducing the time needed for structural validation.

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The shapes, major axis orientations and displacement patterns of fault surfaces

Cited by 332 publications

References 52 publications

Thoughts Regarding the Dimensions of Faults at Rainier and Aqueduct Mesas, Nye County, Nevada, Based on Surface and Underground Mapping

Thoughts Regarding the Dimensions of Faults at Rainier and Aqueduct Mesas, Nye County, Nevada, Based on Surface and Underground Mapping

Displacement field in contraction‐driven faults

A parametric fault displacement model to introduce kinematic control into modeling faults from sparse data

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