Do You Know the Different Types of Faults? (2024)

Updated on January 17, 2020

Parts of a Fault

The main components of a fault are (1) the fault plane, (2) the fault trace, (3) the hanging wall, and (4) the footwall. Thefault planeis where the action is. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping. The line it makes on the Earth's surface is thefault trace.

Where the fault plane is sloping, as with normal and reverse faults, the upper side is the hangingwalland the lower side is thefootwall. When the fault plane is vertical, there is no hanging wall or footwall.

Any fault plane can be completely described with two measurements: its strike and its dip. Thestrikeis the direction of the fault trace on the Earth's surface. Thedipis the measurement of how steeply the fault plane slopes. For example, if you dropped a marble on the fault plane, it would roll exactly down the direction of dip.

Normal Faults

Normal faultsform when the hanging wall drops down in relation to the footwall. Extensional forces, those that pull the plates apart, and gravity are the forces that create normal faults. They are most common at divergent boundaries.

These faults are "normal" because they follow the gravitational pull of the fault plane, not because they are the most common type.

The Sierra Nevada of California and the East African Rift are two examples of normal faults.

Reverse Faults

Reverse faultsform when the hanging wall moves up. The forces creating reverse faults are compressional, pushing the sides together. They are common at convergent boundaries.

Together, normal and reverse faults are called dip-slip faults, because the movement on them occurs along the dip direction -- either down or up, respectively.

Reverse faults create some of the world's highest mountain chains, including the Himalaya Mountains and theRocky Mountains.

Strike-Slip Faults

Strike-slip faultshave walls that move sideways, not up or down. That is, the slip occurs along the strike, not up or down the dip. In these faults, the fault plane is usually vertical so there is no hanging wall or footwall. The forces creating these faults are lateral or horizontal, carrying the sides past each other.

Strike-slip faults are eitherright-lateralorleft-lateral. That means someone standing near the fault trace and looking across it would see the far side move to the right or to the left, respectively. The one in the picture is left-lateral.

While strike-slip faults occur across the world, the most famous is the San Andreas fault. The southwestern portion of California is moving northwestward towards Alaska. Contrary to popular belief, California will not suddenly "fall into the ocean." It will just continue moving at about 2 inches per year until, 15 million years from now, Los Angeles will be located right next to San Francisco.

Oblique Faults

Although many faults have components of both dip-slip and strike-slip, their overall movement is usually dominated by one or the other. Those that experience considerable amounts of both are calledoblique faults. A fault with 300 meters of vertical offset and 5 meters of left-lateral offset, for example, would not normally be considered an oblique fault. A fault with 300 meters of both, on the other hand, would.

It's important to know a fault's type -- it reflects the kind of tectonic forces that are acting on a specific area.Because many faults show a combination of dip-slip and strike-slip motion, geologists use moresophisticated measurementsto analyze their specifics.

You can judge a fault's type by looking at thefocal mechanism diagramsof earthquakes that occur on it -- those are the "beachball" symbols you'll often see on earthquake sites.