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Understanding Faults: The Key to Geological Puzzle Solving

Geologists have recognized faults as crucial features for understanding the formation of rocks and geological processes. Faults not only help explain the contact between different rock types but also play a significant role in earthquakes and the growth of mountain ranges. Identifying and mapping faults is essential for assessing seismic hazards, avoiding construction on active faults, and locating productive oil wells. Learn more about the importance of faults in solving geological puzzles and their impact on everyday life.

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Understanding Faults: The Key to Geological Puzzle Solving

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  1. WHY DO WE LOOK FOR FAULTS?? Geologists of the end of the 19th century (at that time geologists were more like adventurers rather than scientists!) realized that some faults were required to explain why rock types that were so different to each other had come in contact.

  2. ROCKS IN NATURE • are strongly deformed and rearranged • volumes of rock are displaced from their original position THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THESE BIG BLOCKS OF DIFFERENT ROCK IS IDENTIFIED BY FAULTS. For geologists, faults are among the most common and obvious features on this and other planets (if any of you one day decide to learn more about geology, you will see a few!).

  3. Faults must be identified on the surface, must be mapped in detail and reconstructed at depth because: FAULTS ALLOW GEOLOGISTS TO SOLVE THE GEOLOGICAL PUZZLE: HOW DID THESE ROCKS GET HERE??

  4. Often when a fault slips it shakes the ground. • EARTHQUAKE! FAULTS ARE SURFACES OF CONCENTRATED MOVEMENT BETWEEN TWO BLOCKS

  5. There is a lot of energy released at each earthquake. The BIGGER the earthquake, the BIGGER is the deformation that can be observed in the area surrounding the fault. The displacement on this fault after this earthquake was about 3 meters.

  6. The thrust fault propagate and… …the strata are compressed and folded This is a small structure. See the hammer for reference. A vertical cross-section (slice through the Earth) across the bump in the previous slide would display something like this:

  7. A single slip event of 3 meters is followed by thousands of other slip events: 3m X 1000 events= 3km THE MOUNTAIN RANGE GROWS! To imagine what the folds in the previous photo might look like in cross section, we should take a look at this: See the road sign for reference Sometimes the vertical displacement above the thrust fault can be the order of a few KM! HOW CAN A MOUNTAIN RANGE GROW FROM SUCH A SMALL THING?

  8. We must predict where the fault will slip • If the city cannot be removed, the seismic hazard must be assessed so that the houses can be built strong enough to resist a possible earthquake YOU CERTAINLY DON’T WANT TO BUILD A CONDOMINIUM ON A POSSIBLE ACTIVE FAULT! FAULTS ARE DANGEROUS! • We don’t want to build new cities close to active faults

  9. FAULTS ARE IMPORTANT TO OIL COMPANIES For every slip on the fault surface the rock volume surrounding the fault will break in many fractures • Fractures increase the potential for larger volumes of oil to flow to the surface • Oil wells will be more productive when they intersect an intensely fractured rock mass

  10. Oil companies need to know precisely where faults are to locate their wells… …for better engineering the oil field complex production systems, and finally…

  11. … BACK TO EVERYDAY LIFE!

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