Southern California Earthquake Center

This brochure is designed to briefly explain the different fault types. All of these are present in California and all over the world.

For more information on earthquakes, please visit: www.scec.org www.usgs.gov

Fault Types
Faults are essentially cracks in layers of rock, along which displacement occurs. They can be divided into three categories: Dip-Slip, Strike-Slip, and Oblique. Reverse Faults Reverse faults are the opposite of normal faults. They occur when the hanging wall move up in relation to the footwall. Sometimes, reverse faults are also referred to as Thrust faults.
Right-lateral strike-slip faults have the same motion as left-lateral, however, if standing on one side of the fault, the other side appears to have moved to the right. The most famous fault in California, the San Andreas fault, is a rightlateral strike-slip fault.

Right-Lateral Strike-Slip Faults

Dip-Slip Faults
Dip slip faults are when the fault plane is angled less than 90. They also are defined to have a foot wall and a hanging wall, which can be differentiated in the following figure.

Strike-Slip Faults
Left-lateral strike-slip faults occur when the two side move parallel to one another. There is no vertical displacement, only horizontal. In order to tell it is a left-lateral is if, when standing on one side, the other side of the fault has apparent displacement to the left.

Oblique Faults
Oblique faults are faults on which two directions of displacement occur. It is a combination of dip-slip motion and strike-slip motion. Therefore, there is a space between the faces of the fault. And one side is higher, vertically, than the other.

Left-Lateral Strike-Slip Faults

Normal Faults Normal faults are defined by the foot wall moving up in relation to the hanging wall. In this instance, a fault scarp is created. All of this can be seen in the above figure.

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/images/lithosphere/tectonics/normal_fault_labelled_diagram.jpg http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/images/lithosphere/tectonics/reverse_fault_diagram_small.jpg http://facweb.bhc.edu/academics/science/harwoodr/GEOL101/Study/Images/StrikeSlipLLFault.gif http://facweb.bhc.edu/academics/science/harwoodr/GEOL101/Study/Images/StrikeSlipRLFault.gif http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Oblique_slip_fault.jpg