Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bradshaw, G. A. Articles by Zoback, M. D. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Listric normal faulting, stress refraction, and the state of stress in the Gulf Coast basin

¹ Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305

The close association of overpressured shales and the coincident flattening of listric normal faults has been noted and is usually explained in terms of gravity-sliding models. However, incorporation of overpressure into Mohr-Coulomb frictional-faulting theory does not predict normal faults dipping at angles less than 45°, even for very low coefficients of friction. We suggest that low-angle normal faults may form because of a rotation of the maximum principal stress away from vertical with depth. Such a rotation occurs if a significant contrast in viscosity exists between two adjacent strata, such as a normally pressured sandstone and an underlying overpressured shale or evaporite. The stress-refraction model renders the presence of a preexisting fault plane or an extremely low coefficient of friction unnecessary to explain listric fault geometry and offers a failure mechanism in agreement with frictional-faulting theory based on rheological arguments.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. M. Kennedy and M. C. van Soest Flow of Mantle Fluids Through the Ductile Lower Crust: Helium Isotope Trends Science, November 30, 2007; 318(5855): 1433 - 1436. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. W. O'Leary Tectonic models for Yucca Mountain, Nevada Geological Society of America Memoirs, January 1, 2007; 199(0): 105 - 153. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Ehrlich and R. H. Gabrielsen The complexity of a ramp-flat-ramp fault and its effect on hanging-wall structuring: an example from the Njord oil field, offshore mid-Norway Petroleum Geoscience, October 1, 2004; 10(4): 305 - 317. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Collettini and M. R. Barchi A comparison of structural data and seismic images for low-angle normal faults in the Northern Apennines (Central Italy): constraints on activity Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2004; 224(1): 95 - 112. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. Benedicto, M. Seguret, and P. Labaume Interaction between faulting, drainage and sedimentation in extensional hanging-wall syncline basins: example of the Oligocene Matelles basin (Gulf of Lion rifted margin, SE France) Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 1999; 156(1): 81 - 108. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R.O.B. WESTAWAY Dependence of active normal fault dips on lower-crustal flow regimes Journal of the Geological Society, April 1, 1998; 155(2): 233 - 253. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. C.P. PEACOCK and D. J. SANDERSON Effects of layering and anisotropy on fault geometry Journal of the Geological Society, October 1, 1992; 149(5): 793 - 802. [Abstract] [PDF]