This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Fault (geology) article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies |
Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 5 September 2019 and 3 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Rockjockey222.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignmentbyPrimeBOT (talk) 21:13, 16 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
When I visited the webpage http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_fault, I was very glad that I had finally found a webpage on faults, but I was really confused by the language. Something that a long-ago English teacher once said to me: When you answer an essay question, tell all the facts you know, make the answer as complete as possible. Then say what that means. ex. "The Earth is an oblate sphere. THIS MEANS that the Earth is a sphere, but because of the fact that it spins on an axis, centripical force flattens the poles and pushes out the center. A good way for you and I to understand what this means is by thinking of a popular toy much like a yo-yo. This toy is a, viscous disk about 1 cm thick and 4cm in diameter. It is attached to two strings coming out of either side. One twists these strings, then untwists them with a flick of the wrists, repeating this motion until the circle blurs, appearing bigger than it is. In truth, it is not an illusion, but that the centripical force has pulled the edges of the disk out with material taken from the top and bottom of the disk, forcing it to squish in. This is how the Earth acts." I am not saying that the explanation of each fact should be as complete as this one– no, for that much information would be much too much. However, in the way that this explanation makes you understand (or at least tries to), you don't have to be comfortable with scientific language. If you understand the part quoted about the toy, you don't even have to be able to think abstractly. I think that your geography page could do well to be written in some way more similar to this.
Next to the Strike-slip Faults section, the description under the image of the San Andreas Fault suggests that the fault caused the earthquake. This is not true. Earthquakes cause faults, not the other way around. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iraubergeek (talk • contribs) 14:59, 7 April 2010 (UTC)Reply
So can you explain how you get an earthquake to occur in a solid object. The fact is they cannot - faults progress by brittle failure into solid structures, exploiting zones of weakness. Earthquakes occur as a result of a fault locking and then suddenly moving. Every earthquake plots onto an existing fault plane not the other way round.The Geologist (talk) 16:24, 22 July 2013 (UTC)Reply
I am (was) trying to learn about terminology of structural geology. I found this web page and read it, and thought I understood it. Then I visited another site, the Schlumberger oilfield services oilfield glossary page about faults. I thought I understood what a hanging wall was from this page since I could grasp the concept of 'the block above the fault' easily. What I mean is that I had an 'intuitive' feeling for the concept of a fault plane (as long as it wasn't vertical) and could easily grasp the idea of the block above this plane and the one below it. Then I went back to this page and realised that according to the Schlumberger definition what is called the hanging wall here I would call the footwall and vice versa. I don't understand why. Don't forget I'm an amateur and could be missing something obvious.
I hope that the mining origin of the terms helps people, it sure helped me Mikenorton 16:49, 15 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
Text copied from newly created article 'Faults'. Maybe there is something that ought to be integrated into the article:
- snoyes 11:35, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Some texts, unlike our article, make a distinction between reverse fault and a thrust fault. A reverse fault is the exact opposite of a normal fault, while a thrust fault is the slippage of two strata past each other under horizontal compression. Is this distinction generally accepted? -- Heron 21:40, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Many structural geologists would use "thrust fault" for a compressive fault dipping LESS than 45 degrees and "reversed fault" for a compressive fault dipping MORE than 45 degrees. User:Denbrok
Thrust faults, as Denbrok said, are shallow-dipping. They also have other distinguishing features from reverse faults, in that they occur within units; ramp up through units; may be associated with fold-bend folds, etc etc.Rolinator 02:38, 20 December 2005 (UTC)Reply
Depending on who you ask the amount of dip at which a thrust fault is called reverse fault and vise versa varies. a common value is 35 degrees. EndoSimon 12:12, 16 April 2007 (UTC)Reply
The fault labeled in Figure 3 as a 'thrust fault' looks more like a reverse fault. Perhaps a better image could be located. PowerWill500 (talk) 23:17, 3 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Whilst a thrust plane is an over-riding of the lower sequence and places older rocks on top of younger ones, it is not to be confused with a reverse fault which, whilst it apparently does the same - older rocks over younger rocks, they are distinctly different. A reverse fault usually has a high angle ~>40 degrees whilst a thrust generally is considered to have a low angle ~<30 degrees. Thrusts are usually associated with large tectonic motion at subduction zones. It was the mapping of the Moine Thrust - NW SCotland, in the 19th Century that proved that (despite the theory advanced by many geologists of the time), it was impossible for metamorphic rocks to be deposited above unaltered sediments and then undergo metamorphism leaving the underlying rocks unaffected.
Incidentally the term "normal" and "reverse" in respect of faults originated in the British Coalfields. Miners could tell which way the seam had moved and as the usual direction was downwards it was considered to be "normal" to then dig down until the coal seam was encountered and on occasions the opposite was the case and this said to be reversed motion or a reverse fault.The Geologist (talk) 16:24, 22 July 2013 (UTC)Reply
I think transform fault and thrust fault should be merged into this article. If they get too big, they can be split off again. -- Kjkolb 03:39, 16 December 2005 (UTC)Reply
I think not; they are too different in terms of their sense of throw and geologic setting. Thrust faults are not at all like transform faults.Rolinator 02:36, 20 December 2005 (UTC)Reply
I know they are very different, but normal faults, reverse faults, strike-slip faults and oblique-slip faults are covered here and don't have articles of their own. Transform fault is only a paragraph and one sentence long and thrust fault is two paragraphs long, and the second paragraph is small. Both are shorter than the dip-slip fault section of this article even without the pictures. -- Kjkolb 08:30, 20 December 2005 (UTC)Reply
No, let's keep them separate. Both thrust faults and transform are distinctly different from other fault types and each other. They describe totally differing geologic processes and the articles for each need considerable expansion - definetly not merging. Vsmith 03:30, 21 December 2005 (UTC)Reply
That's fine. It just seems weird to have some fault types split off, while other major types are included in the article, especially when the articles are so short. I'll remove the tags. -- Kjkolb 06:17, 21 December 2005 (UTC)Reply
There's talk on the [[1]] page to merge its content with this page. My question is whether the terminology "Earthquake Hotspot" is a legitimate geological term. In my experience it is not, but more learned folks might want to check the page out and make a recommendation. Mkantonelli1 (talk) 10:48, 12 February 2012 (UTC)Reply
I have added throw, heave, etc. Added duplexes and klippe. I'm lacking decent open-source diagrams for these, especially the ramp-flat ones.
I was reading about dip-slip faults, and got confused about the use of the word "parallel". It seems that the author means parallel at the surface. I looked at the linked articles for horst and graben, and found the same reference to "parallel" faults, but the fault planes are not parallel, only the intersection of the planes with the surface. Is this a standard accepted use of this word in this context? Also, as a geology neophite, I wonder if three or more faults could produce the same effect as a horst or graben, without even the intersection of the faults and the surface being parallel?
I added the dip directions of the two faults in the horst and graben definitions and then decided that the use of "parallel" became unnecessary. Mikenorton 16:52, 15 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
Editing something else. Need to put SynDep faulting onto the To-Do list. Really needs a diagram to help.
The amount of images people have taken of "a fault in the wilderness" is flattering as to the importance of this page, but the following image, in thumbnal, is pretty much useless as far as a clearly legible depiction of faulting goes, so I have removed it from the page;
This is not to say it isn't a good photo, but for illustration purposes we need things which are clearly identifiable as faults even in thumbnail size.Rolinator 23:52, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
I agree. I can tell the fault is in the middle of the photo, but someone who doesn't know a thing about geology would not see it. Mkantonelli1 (talk) 10:51, 12 February 2012 (UTC)Reply
There must be a slight inversion here. In one of the pictures, a reverse fault is shown, but labelled "thrust fault". In another one both names are used. This perhaps may be changed for a clearer version.
Geologic fault → Fault (geology)
Moved per consensus. Will fix double redirs. now. Vsmith 02:56, 15 August 2007 (UTC)Reply
I'm not sure what this section is doing in this article, this is covered better by the pages on Seismic hazard and Mitigation of seismic motion. Unless anyone objects, I'm just going to add these links to the See Also section and remove Mitigation.Mikenorton 08:22, 15 August 2007 (UTC)Reply
No objections, so section removed. Mikenorton 16:06, 16 September 2007 (UTC)Reply
This topic is in some kind new to me, but as I have not found any article mention 'focal mechanism' I would suggest that an article should be created and 'fault plane' should lead there or should be the article title, which in the latter case treats 'focal mechanism' as well. Ausgerechnet alaska 02:20, 15 September 2007 (UTC)Reply
INCLUDE EXAMPLE OF NORMAL FAULT
Can someone fix/move Figure 5? It covers a portion of the image of the San Andreas fault and it's caption. I'm not sure how to reduce its size, otherwise I'd do it myself. THANKS!! 66.218.202.75 (talk) 19:24, 29 July 2008 (UTC)Reply
Should we connect this to the more quantitative mechanical explanations for faulting, especially as given by Mohr-Coulomb failure? Awickert (talk) 02:46, 27 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
An anon IP has been removing the "Slip, heave, throw" section without explanation, and adding ambiguous text, worsening the intelligibility. They were reverted [2]. Another editor (probably the same anon IP after logging in) has removed the same section without explanation, and added more ambiguous text with elementary grammatical errors. I have reverted.
I think the article needs a section like this, but it needs to be reworded to make clear what it is trying to say. Removing the section without explanation is not helpful. The section needs to have an intelligible explanation of what "sense of slip" actually means with citations to reliable sources. 85.94.186.91 (talk) 15:43, 6 September 2009 (UTC)Reply
According to this the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station was built on a fault line. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.177.152.21 (talk) 09:04, 24 August 2011 (UTC)Reply
Hi, I am a student of the OU, UK, in Geoscience, from Germany. Your side is more extensive than the german ( Verwerfung (Geologie)). What is about "slickensides" and "slickenfibres" in connection with the topic "fault plane"? "They developed, when the fault was active; fibres form when the walls are held apart by mineral-rich fluid under pressure, grooves form where they are not. The grooves themselves are called slickensides, whilst the fibrous mineral growths are often called slickenfibres. Slickensides and slickenfibres give an accurate measure of the direction of slip of the fault." [ which occured at last] The Open University, S 260 Geology, Block 3 Internal processes, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, first published 1999 I do not want to try to put it in the article, because my style in English is not a perfect one. --Schuetzler 62 (talk) 16:59, 28 December 2011 (UTC)Reply
A map, which say that it's an isopach map, has been added to the article and is now the first image. A number of questions (with my views added):
On balance, I would remove this, but I will await other comments. Mikenorton (talk) 16:07, 27 April 2012 (UTC)Reply
I reverted the addition of the text and pictures that were based on those used in the German version of this page. I looked at the pictures there, but I don't find them or the text at all helpful in understanding the outcrop effect of dip-slip faults - you can see them here - others may disagree. Mikenorton (talk) 20:43, 15 October 2012 (UTC)Reply
Unless I'm mistaken, arn't subduction zones faults? They don't seem to be discussed in the article. Volcanoguy 07:19, 30 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
To my knowledge this is not a real geologic term. It is no geology glossary or book that I have ever found. The phrase "earthquake hotspot" seems to be found only in a few news articles, where "hotspot" is slang for a place where something happens frequently, just as a graffiti hotspot would describe an alley with a high incidence of graffiti. I believe the redirect to this article should be removed because it seems to validate "earthquake hotspot" as a term synonymous with "Fault".Elriana (talk) 02:45, 29 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
This article has been identified at WP:The_Core_Contest as core ("vital") and needing repair. The most prominent repair needed is as tagged: lack of inline cites. I don't feel like doing that whole job myself, but to make it easier for anyone else I propose to move all of the full references out of the text and into the References section, and to create the proper Harv templates for doing short cites in the text. This would simply the editing needed to add the in-line cites. Any objections? ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 00:02, 11 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
Done. But note: attribution (citation) of specific material is still needed, one citation is dead, and some of the others are pretty flakey. It would be a big improvement if someone were to identify some leading authorities on the topic, and cite from them instead of grabbing what ever Google tosses up. There are good, authoritative sources out there; we don't need to rely on any junk. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 01:21, 15 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
I played hookey today, made some changes here that shouldn't be controversial. I propose another change: deleting the paragraph on accelerating moment release (AMR). That is something more appropriate for earthquake prediction (though even there its notability is suspect); I don't see that it is relevant here. Also: the image for strike-slip faulting doesn't really show that, we need a better one, like shows some offset. I've seen some good images, but off-hand don't have any good "free" ones. ~ 21:59, 15 February 2014 (UTC)
Ha! Perhaps this image will suffice. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 23:21, 15 February 2014 (UTC) Reply
Chapter 2 of USGS Professional Paper 1515 (on-line) has a bunch of pictures. Generally not so good, but fig. 2.5 is a good diagram. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:36, 17 February 2014 (UTC)Reply
A tag has just been added suggesting (to quote what appears at the top of the current version of the page) "The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the First World and Western countries and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject". In my view faults are faults, wherever they occur - what we need in the article are good examples to help the reader understand the topic, irrespective of their location. As to the perspective, I am not aware of any other 'perspective' to the one currently used in the article. The current pictures are variable in quality - I don't personally get much from either the French example (too much vegetation obscuring the fault) or the Junction Fault (it's just hard to see what the relationship is between the two sides), so I'd be happy to see them replaced. I'll take a look around for alternatives, but the main criterion should be clarity, rather than location. Mikenorton (talk) 11:45, 28 November 2015 (UTC)Reply
I'm not sure if this deserves it's own section or it should redirect to listric fault. Volcanoguy 15:32, 7 January 2016 (UTC)Reply
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Fault (geology). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 05:47, 30 December 2016 (UTC)Reply
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Fault (geology). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:20, 28 September 2017 (UTC)Reply
To whom it may concern,
a group of graduate students is preparing to make substantial edits to this page. We are working together and doing this exercise as a group project for a class under the supervision of a professor and Wikipedia experts. We wish to keep the overall structure of the page but will be editing some sections for content, moving existing information around, and adding some new headings. Overall, the majority of the information that started on the page at the time of this commenting will still exist after our editing. We are not going to use any controversial talking points or vocabulary and only intend to change something if it can be improved.
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Fault(geology). Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Steel1943 (talk) 18:46, 10 January 2020 (UTC)Reply
Currently normal fault, reverse fault and strike-slip fault all redirect to this article. Thrust fault, however, has its own article and I think that we should be aiming for that for all of the fault types. Mikenorton (talk) 17:19, 9 April 2020 (UTC)Reply