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    Slip on 'weak' faults by the rotation of regional stress in the fracture damage zone

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Faulkner, D.
    Mitchell, T.
    Healy, David
    Heap, M.
    Date
    2006
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Faulkner, D. and Mitchell, T. and Healy, D. and Heap, M. 2006. Slip on 'weak' faults by the rotation of regional stress in the fracture damage zone. Nature. 444: pp. 922-925.
    Source Title
    Nature
    DOI
    10.1038/nature05353
    ISSN
    00280836
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11613
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Slip on unfavourably oriented faults with respect to a remotely applied stress is well documented and implies that faults such as the San Andreas fault and low-angle normal faults are weak when compared to laboratory-measured frictional strength. If high pore pressure within fault zones is the cause of such weakness, then stress reorientation within or close to a fault is necessary to allow sufficient fault weakening without the occurrence of hydrofracture. From field observations of a major tectonic fault, and using laboratory experiments and numerical modelling, here we show that stress rotation occurs within the fractured damage zone surrounding faults. In particular, we find that stress rotation is considerable for unfavourably oriented 'weak' faults. In the 'weak' fault case, the damage-induced change in elastic properties provides the necessary stress rotation to allow high pore pressure faulting without inducing hydrofracture.

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