Faults and earthquake focal mechanism

INTRODUCTION
Rocks are very slowly, but continuously moving and changing shape. Under high
temperature and pressure conditions common deep within Earth, rocks can bend and flow.
In the cooler parts of Earth, rocks are colder and brittle and respond to large stresses by
fracturing. Earthquakes are the agents of brittle rock failure. A fault is a crack across, where
the rocks are balancing. They range in size from micrometers to thousands of kilometers in
length and tens of kilometers in depth. But they are generally much thinner than their
length and depth. Not only they vary in size and orientation, but they can accommodate
different styles of rock deformation, such as compression and extension. Not all faults
intersect Earth's surface, and most earthquakes do no rupture the surface. When a fault
does intersect the surface, the ground may get cracked, or raised, or lowered. The rupture
of the surface by a fault is called as a fault scarp. Identifying scarps is an important task for
assessing the seismic hazards in any region.

Fig. 1: Fence offset about 11 feet during the 1906 San Francisco California Earthquake.
Photo Credit: National Geophysical Data Center
Earthquakes and Faults
When an earthquake occurs only a part of a fault is involved in the rupture. That
area is usually outlined by the distribution of aftershocks in the sequence. Generally, when
the area of the fault that ruptures, increases, the magnitude also get increased. Although
the exact area associated with a given size earthquake varies from place to place and event
to event. It is possible make predictions for "typical" earthquakes based on the available
observations.
From the table 1, an earthquake at San Francisco, California region (April 18, 1906),
had fault length of 432 km, depth of 12 km and magnitude of Mw 7.9. In the same
California region at San Fernando Valley, an earthquake occurred on February 09, 1971 with
magnitude of Mw 6.64, had fault length of 17 km and depth of 14 km. From these two

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earthquakes it can be inferred that fault length and depth are acting as a deciding factor for
the magnitude of an earthquake.
Fault Length Magnitude
Date Location Depth (km)
(km) (Mw)
04/18/06 San Francisco, CA 432 12 7.90
07/21/52 Kern County, CA 64 19 7.38

12/16/54 Fairview Peak, NV 50 15 7.17

12/16/54 Dixie Peak, NV 42 14 6.94

06/28/66 Parkfield, CA 35 10 6.25

02/09/71 San Fernando Valley, CA 17 14 6.64

10/28/83 Borah Peak, ID 33 20 6.93

10/18/89 Loma Prieta, CA 40 16 6.92

06/28/92 Landers, CA 62 12 7.34

Table 1: List of earthquakes with details of fault length, depth and magnitude

Magnitude Fault Dimensions (Length x Depth, in km)

4.0 1.2 x 1.2
5.0 3.3 x 3.3
6.0 10 x 10
6.5 16 x 16, 25 x 10
7.0 40 x 20, 50 x 15
7.5 140 x 15, 100 x 20, 72 x 30, 50 x 40, 45 x 45
8.0 300 x 20, 200 x 30, 150 x 40, 125 x 50

Table 2: Approximate dimensions of a fault and their corresponding magnitude

Fault Structure
A fault "zone" consists of several smaller regions defined by the style and amount of
deformation within them. The center of the fault is the most deformed and where slip
between the surrounding rocks occurs. The region can be quite small, about as wide as a
pencil is long. It is identified by the finely ground rocks called cataclasite, also called as
gouge. The gouge is composed of very fine-grained material that resembles clay.
Surrounding the central zone is a region several meters across that contains abundant
fractures. Outside that region is another region that contains distinguishable fractures, but

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much less dense than the preceding region. Last is the competent "host" rock that marks
the end of the fault zone.

Fig. 2: Structure of an exposed section of a vertical strike-slip fault zone

Fault Classifications
Active faults are structure along which we expect displacement to occur. The
process, which produces displacement across a fault continuously, is called active faults. All
shallow earthquakes occur on active faults.
Inactive faults are structures that we can identify, but which do no have
earthquakes. Because of the complexity of earthquakes, judging a fault to be inactive can be
tricky. But often we can measure the last time substantial offset occurred across a fault. If a
fault has been inactive for millions of years, it's certainly safe to call it inactive. However,
some faults only have large earthquakes once in thousands of years, and we need to
evaluate carefully their hazard potential.
Reactivated faults, when movement along formerly inactive faults can help to
alleviate strain within the crust or upper mantle.
Faulting Geometry
Faulting is a complex process and the variety of faults that exists is large. Consider a
simplified but general fault classification based on the geometry of faulting. Described by
specifying three angular measurements: dip, strike, and slip. In Earth, faults take on a range
of orientations from vertical to horizontal.

Dip
Dip is the angle that describes the steepness of the fault surface. This angle is
measured from Earth's surface, or a plane parallel to Earth's surface. The dip of a horizontal

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fault is 0°, and the dip of a vertical fault is 90°. If you were tunneling through a fault, the
material beneath the fault would be by your feet. The other material would be hanging
above you head. The material resting on the fault is called the hanging wall, the material
beneath the fault is called the foot wall.

Fig.3: Showing method to measure the dip of a fault

Strike

The strike is an angle used to specify the orientation of the fault and measured
clockwise from north. For example, a strike of 0° or 180° indicates a fault that is oriented in
a north-south direction. A strike of 90° or 270° indicates east-west oriented structure.
Always specify the strike such that when you "look" in the strike direction, the fault dips to
you right. Of course if the fault is perfectly vertical you have to describe the situation as a
special case. If a fault curves, the strike varies along the fault; such a fault direction should
be specified with latitude and longitude.

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Fig. 4: Methodology to measure strike of a fault

Slip
Slip is to describe the direction of motion across the fault. That is, which way did one
side of the fault move with respect to the other. The slip has two components, a
"magnitude" which tells us how far the rocks moved, and a direction. The magnitude and
direction are specified separately. The magnitude of slip is simply how far the two sides of
the fault moved relative to one another. It's a distance usually a few centimeters for small
earthquakes and meters for large events. The direction of slip is measured on the fault
surface, and like the strike and dip, it is specified as an angle. Specifically the slip direction is
the direction that the hanging wall moved relative to the footwall.
1. If the hanging wall moves to the right, the slip direction is 0° (Left Lateral
Strike – Slip).
2. If it moves up, the slip angle is 90° (Reverse).
3. If it moves to the left, the slip angle is 180° (Right Lateral Strike – Slip).
4. If it moves down, the slip angle is 270° or -90° (Normal).

Fig. 5: Methods to measure slip of a fault

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Geometric Classification of faults

Hanging wall movement determines the geometric classification of faulting. Hanging

wall movements can be classified into "dip-slip" and "strike-slip”. Dip-slip movement occurs
when the hanging wall moved predominantly up or down relative to the footwall. If the
motion was down, the fault is called a normal fault, if the movement was up; the fault is
called a reverse fault.

Downward movement is "normal" because we normally would expect the hanging

wall to slide downward along the foot wall because of the pull of gravity. Moving the
hanging wall up an inclined fault requires work to overcome friction on the fault and the
downward pull of gravity.

1. The hanging wall moves horizontally, it's a strike-slip earthquake.

2. If the hanging wall moves to the left, the earthquake is called right-lateral. If
objects move to right, it's a right-lateral fault.
3. If it moves to the right, it's called a left-lateral fault. If objects on the other
side of the fault, move to left, it's a left-lateral fault.
When the hanging wall motion is neither dominantly vertical nor horizontal, the motion is
called oblique-slip. Although oblique faulting isn't unusual, it is less common than the
normal, reverse, and strike-slip movement.

Fig. 6: Different types of faults

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Faults and Forces

The style of faulting is an indicator of rock deformation and reflects the type of
forces pushing or pulling on the region. Near Earth's surface, the orientations of these forces
are usually oriented such that one is vertical and the other two are horizontal (NS and EW).
The precise direction of the horizontal forces varies from place to place as does the size of
each force. The style of faulting that is a reflection of the relative size of the different forces
- in particular is the relative size of the vertical to the horizontal forces. There are three
cases to consider, the vertical force can be the smallest, the largest, or the intermediate.

1. If the vertical force is the largest, normal faulting.

2. If it is the smallest, reverse faulting.
3. If the vertical force is the intermediate force, strike-slip faulting.
Normal faulting is indicative of a region that is stretching, and on the continents,
normal faulting usually occurs in regions with relatively high elevation such as plateaus.

Reverse faulting reflects compressive forces squeezing a region and they are
common in uplifting mountain ranges and along the coast of many regions.

Strike-slip faulting indicates neither extension nor compression, but identifies regions
where rocks are sliding past each other.

Fault Type: Normal Faulting Reverse Faulting Transform Faulting

Deformation Style: Extension Compression Translation

Vertical Force Is Vertical Force Is Vertical Force Is

Force Orientation:
Largest Smallest Intermediate

Table 3: Showing deformation style and force orientation for different types of faults

Earthquake Focal Mechanisms - Beach Ball Representation

Specific set of symbols to identify faulting geometry on maps. The symbols are called
earthquake focal mechanisms or sometimes "seismic beach balls". A focal mechanism is a
graphical summary of the strike, dip, and slip directions. An earthquake focal mechanism is
a projection of the intersection of the fault surface and an imaginary lower hemisphere
surrounding the center of the rupture. The intersection between the fault "plane" and the
sphere is a curve. The focal mechanism shows the view of the hemisphere from directly
above.

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Fig. 7: Schematic diagram of a focal mechanism

The orientation of a plane (i.e. the strike and dip) can be represented using just one
curve. To include information on the slip, use two planes and shade opposite quadrants of
the hemisphere. The ability to represent slip is that one cannot identify which of the two
planes on the focal mechanism is the fault without additional information. Info’s on location
and trend of aftershocks is important.

Fault Choice 1 Fault Choice 2

Strike(deg) 95.0 231.0

Dip(deg) 30.0 67.0

Slip(deg) 129.7 69.7

Table 4: Representation of a fault geometry in terms of numerical values

Cartographic Earthquake Source

  Fault Types
Depiction Mechanisms

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Thrust
Fault

Normal Fault

Strike-Slip
Fault

Oblique
Thrust
(Combination
of thrust and
strike-slip
faulting)

Fig. 8: Diagrammatic beach ball representation and cartographic representation of different

types of faults

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