A course on the geology of faults and seismogenic faulting

This course is taught by Professor Vince Cronin

This web page was last revised on 12 January 2020. Course participants:

• Rudger Dame, Rudger_Dame1@baylor.edu
• Kate Hobart, Kate_Hobart1@baylor.edu
• Anna Ruefer, Anna_Ruefer1@baylor.edu
• Nick Wagner, Nick_Wagner2@baylor.edu

...and perhaps others who will be welcome to join us in the fun.

Introduction

This course will consider the geology of faults and seismogenic faulting, including a little bit of basic mechanics. This will be a hybrid course involving some lecturing and a lot of reading. My immediate goal is for all of the participants to understand some of the basics of faulting through reading papers and selected chapters from key books, and related lectures, presentations and discussions.

Dr. Cronin has a thumb disk with most, if not all, of the documents listed below. Students enrolled in this course can download the docs from that thumb disk.

It is assumed that students have access to a computer with a USB port, and can find and download required reading not otherwise provided by Dr. Cronin from the Baylor electronic libraries.

The burden for learning the material in this class falls squarely on the students' shoulders. Dr. Cronin will be the facilitator, but each student is responsible for her/his progress in this course.

Grading might be based on occasional quizzes about the key points covered in assigned reading, class participation in discussions and whether a given student seems to be prepared when called upon in class, and a final exam. Actually, let's skip the final exam.

Dr. Cronin will be out of town chasing wild geese February 2-4 (Secret World Government, Geology Division, Washington DC) and for a currently-unscheduled IRIS meeting. Regrettably, there will be no class meetings during those times.

Working Bibliography: A Seminar Course on Faults and Faulting

A word on notations.
READ & STUDY means that you should spend time to learn what this paper has to offer. This notation is your hint that material from this paper is very likely to be included on a quiz.
READ -- reference is a notation that is often used for a review paper that is important, should be read in its entirety, and should be used as a reference. At least some of the material from this paper is likely to be included on a quiz.
Skim -- reference indicates that you need to skim this paper so that you know the topics that it covers, and you should slow-down and read sections that seem interesting or relevant to you. This is a paper that you will want to refer to in the future for your general knowledge. It is less likely that material from this paper will be included in a quiz, unless the material is also covered in lecture or in one of the other papers that you were specifically asked to study at a more intense level.
reference indicates that you should know of the existence and availability of this work, and perhaps scan through it so that you have a feel for what it contains.

Some Basics

• Lawson, A.C., Gilbert, G.K., Reid, H.F., Branner, J.C., Fairbanks, H.W., Wood, J.F., Hayford, J.F., Baldwin, A.L., Omori, F., Leuschner, A.O., Davidson, G., Matthes, F.E., Anderson, R., Louderback, G.D., Holway, R.S., Eakle, A.S., Crandall, R., Hoffman, G.F., Warring, G.A., Hughes, E., Rogers, F.J., Baird, A., and others, 1908, The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 -- Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission in two volumes and atlas: Washington, D.C., The Carnegie Institution, Publication No. 87; available online via http://publicationsonline.carnegiescience.edu/publications_online/earthquake_volume/ reference
• Gilbert, G.K., 1906, The investigation of the San Francisco Earthquake: The Popular Science Monthly, v. 69, August; accessed via https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_69/August_1906/The_Investigation _of_the_San_Francisco_Earthquake or http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=uSUDAAAAMBAJ&pg97&query=1906%20August Skim -- reference
• Hill, M.L., 1981, San Andreas fault -- History of concepts: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 92, p. 112-131. READ -- reference
• Hill, M.L., and Dibblee, T.W., Jr., 1953, San Andreas, Garlock and Big Pine faults, California -- A study of the character, history and tectonic significance of their displacements: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 64, p. 443-458. READ & STUDY
• Matthews, V., III, 1973, Pinnacles-Neenach correlation -- A restriction for models of the origin of the Transverse Ranges and the Big Bend in the San Andreas fault: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 84, p. 683-688. READ & STUDY
• Sylvester, A.G., 1988, Strike-slip faults: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100, p. 1666-1703. READ -- reference
• Groshong, R.H., Jr., 1988, Low-temperature deformation mechanisms and their interpretation: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100, p. 1329-1360. Skim -- reference
• Pollard, D.D., and Aydin, A., 1988, Progress in understanding jointing over the past century: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100, p. 1181-1204. Skim -- reference

Ideas of Stress, Strain and Faulting

• Anderson, E.M., 1951, The dynamics of faulting and dupe formation with applications to Britain [2nd edition]: Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 206 p.; READ & STUDY chapter 2, pages 7-21.
• Hubbert, M.K., 1951, Mechanical basis for certain familiar geologic structures: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 62, p. 355-372.
  READ -- reference
• Hafner, W., 1951, Stress distributions and faulting: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 62, p. 373-398.
  READ -- reference
• Fletcher, R.C., and Pollard, D.D., 1999, Can we understand structural and tectonic processes and their products without appeal to a complete mechanics? Journal of Structural Geology, v. 21, p. 1071-1088. READ & STUDY parts 1 & 9; Skim -- reference parts 2 through 8
• Townend, J., and Zoback, M.D., 2004, Regional tectonic stress near the San Andreas fault in central and southern California: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 31, L15S11, dpi:10.1029/2003GLO18918 READ & STUDY all
• Delvaux, D., and Barth, A., 2010, African stress pattern from formal inversion of focal mechanism data: Tectonophysics, v. 482, p. 105-128. Skim -- reference
• Kreemer, C., Haines, A.J., Holt, W.E., Blewitt, G., and Lavalee, D., 2000, On the determination of a global strain rate model: Earth Planets Space, v. 52, p. 765-770. reference
• Kreemer, C., Holt, W.E., and Haines, A.J., 2003, An integrated global model of present-day plate motions and plate boundary deformation: Geophysical Journal International, v. 154, p. 8-34. READ & STUDY parts 1, 2, 7 & 8; Skim -- reference parts 3 through 6
• Hammond, W.C., Blewitt, G., Kreemer, C., Murray-Moraleda, J.R., and Svarc, J.L. 2011, Global positioning system constraints on crustal deformation before and during the 21 Fevruary 2008 Wells, Nevada M 6.0 earthquake: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication 36, p. 181-195.

Reviews of Major Fault Families

Strike-slip faulting

• Sylvester, A.G., 1988, Strike-slip faults: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100, p. 1666-1703.
  
  Reverse dip-slip faulting
  
• Boyer, S.E., and Elliott, D., 1982, Thrust systems: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 66, no. 9, p. 1196-1230.
• Davis, D., Suppe, J., and Dahlen, F.A., 1983, Mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 88, no., B2, p. 1153-1172.
• Dahlen, F.A., Suppe, J., and Davis, D., 1984, Mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges: Cohesive Coulomb theory: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 89, no. B12, p. 10,087-10,101.
• Dahlen, F.A., 1984, Noncohesive cricical Coulomb wedges: An exact solution: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 89, no. B12, p. 10,125-10,133.
  
  Normal dip-slip faulting
  
• Hammond, W.C., Blewitt, G., and Kreemer, C., 2014, Steady contemporary deformation of the central Basin and Range Province, western United States: Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth, v. 119, doi: 10.1002/2014/B011145.
• Wernicke, B., Axen, G.J., and Snow, J.K., 1988, Basin and Range extensional tectonics at the latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100, p. 1738-1757.
• Zoback, M.L., and Zoback, M.D., 1980, Faulting patterns in north-central Nevada and strength of the crust: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 85, no. B1, p. 275-284.

Interpreting Shear-Sense Indicators Along Brittle Faults

• Petit, J.P., 1987, Criteria for the sense of movement on fault surfaces in brittle rocks: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 9, no. 5/6, p. 597-608.
• Marrett, R., and Allmendinger, R.W., 1990, Kinematic analysis of fault-slip data: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 12, no. 8, p. 973-986.
• Iverson, N.R., 1991, Morphology of glacial striae -- Implications for abrasion of glacier beds and fault surfaces: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 103, p. 1308-1316.

Observations of a Significant Fault's Structure

• Chester, F.M., and Chester, J.S., 2005, A picturesque path through pulverized rock along the San Andreas fault near Wrightwood California: Southern California Earthquake Center, 2005 SCEC FARM workshop, 1 p.
• Chester, F.M., Chester, J.S., Kirschner, D.L., Schultz, S.E., and Evans, J.P., 2004, Structure of large-displacement, strike-slip fault zones in the brittle continental crust, in Karner, G.D., Taylor, B., Driscoll, N.W., and Kohlstedt, D.L., Rheology and deformation in the lithosphere at continental margins: New York, Columbia University Press.
• Chester, J.S., Chester, F.M., and Kronenberg, A.K., 2005, Fracture surface energy of the Punchbowl fault, San Andreas system: Nature, v. 437, 1 September, dpi:10.1038/nature03942, p. 133-136.
• Caine, J.S., Evans, J.P., and Forster, C.B., 1996, Fault zone architecture and permeability structure: Geology, v. 24, no. 11, p. 1025-1028.

SAFOD data

• Zoback, M., Hickman, S., Ellsworth, W., 2011, Scientific drilling into the San Andreas fault zone -- An overview of SAFOD's first five years: Accessed 10 February 2013 via http://www.earthscope.org/observatories/safod (4 MB PDF file on the course thumb disk)
  * http://www.earthscope.org/observatories/safod; look through the Phase III Core Atlas (v. 4), which is a 14.1 MB PDF file on the course thumb disk.

LiDAR, InSAR, GPS data used to understand faults

• Kreemer, C., Haines, A.J., Holt, W.E., Blewitt, G., and Lavalee, D., 2000, On the determination of a global strain rate model: Earth Planets Space, v. 52, p. 765-770. reference
• Kreemer, C., Holt, W.E., and Haines, A.J., 2003, An integrated global model of present-day plate motions and plate boundary deformation: Geophysical Journal International, v. 154, p. 8-34. READ & STUDY parts 1, 2, 7 & 8.
• Kreemer, C., Blewitt, G, and Klein, E.C., 2014, A geodetic plate motion and Global Strain Rate Model: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 15, p. 3849-3889.
• Bird, P., and Kreemer, C., 2015, Revised tectonic forecast of global shallow seismicity based on version 2.1 of the Global Strain Rate Map: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 105, no. 1, p. 152-166.
• Bird, P., Jackson, D.D., Kagan, Y.Y., Kreemer, C., and Stein, R.S., 2015, GEAR1: A global earthquake activity rate model constructed from geodetic strain rates and smoothed seismicity: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 105, no. 5, p. 2538-2554.
• Information about the B4 Project, supplying LiDAR data along the San Andreas fault "before" the next big displacement event. Start at http://www.aegsc.org/announcements/b4-data.php

Paleoseismology

• McCalpin, J.P., and Nelson, A.R., 2009, Chapter 1 -- Introduction to paleoseismology, in McCalpin, J.P., [editor], Paleoseismology: Amsterdam, Academic Press, International Geophysics Series v. 95, p. 1-27, (613 p.). See also http://www.elsevierdirect.com/companions/9780123735768 for the chapter Applications of paleoseismic data to seismic hazard assessment.

Fault Seals and Fault/Fracture-Enhanced Permeability

• Antonellini, M., Aydin, A., and Orr, L., 1999, Outcrop-aided characterization of a faulted hydrocarbon reservoir -- Arroyo Grande oil field, California, USA, in Haneberg, W.C., Mozley, P.S., Moore, J.C., and Goodwin, L.B., [editors], Faults and subsurface fluid flow in the shallow crust: Washington, D.C., American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph 113, p. 7-26.
• Nelson, E.P., Kullman, A.J., Gardner, M.H., and Batzle, M., 1999, Fault-fracture networks and related fluid flow and sealing, Brushy Canyon Formation, west Texas, in Haneberg, W.C., Mozley, P.S., Moore, J.C., and Goodwin, L.B., [editors], Faults and subsurface fluid flow in the shallow crust: Washington, D.C., American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph 113, p. 69-81.
• Sorkhabi, R., and Tsuji, Y., 2005, The place of faults in petroleum traps, in Sorkhabi, R., and Tsuji, Y., [editors], Faults, fluid flow, and petroleum traps: Tulsa, Oklahoma, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 85, p. 1-31.

Introduction to Pore-Fluid Pressure Effects

• Scholtz, C.H., 2002, The mechanics of earthquakes and faulting [2nd edition]: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, p. 37-39.
• Hubbert, M.K., and Rubey, W.W., 1959, Role of fluid pressure in mechanics of overthrust faulting -- I. Mechanics of fluid-filled porous solids and its application to overthrust faulting: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 70, p. 115-166.
• Rubey, W.W., and Hubbert, M.K., 1959, Role of fluid pressure in mechanics of overthrust faulting -- II. Overthrust belt in geosynclinal area of western Wyoming: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 70, p. 167-206.
• Moore, W.L., 1961, Role of fluid pressure in overthrust faulting -- A discussion: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 72, p. 1581-1586.
• Hubbert, M.K., and Rubey, W.W., 1961, Role of fluid pressure in mechanics of overthrust faulting -- a reply to discussion by Walter L. Moore: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 72, p. 1587-1594.
• Davis, G.A., 1965, Role of fluid pressure in mechanics of overthrust faulting -- Discussion: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 76, p. 463-468.
• Rubey, W.W., and Hubbert, M.K., 1965, Role of fluid pressure in mechanics of overthrust faulting -- Reply: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 76, p. 469-474.
• Brock, W.G., and Engelder, T., 1977, Deformation associated with the movement of the Muddy Mountain overthrust in the Buffington window, southeastern Nevada: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 88, p. 1667-1677.
• Price, R.A., 1988, The mechanical paradox of large overthrusts: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100, p. 1898-1908.

Inducing Earthquakes by Increasing Pore-Fluid Pressure

• Healy, J.H., Rubey, W.W., Griggs, D.T., and Raleigh, C.B., 1968, The Denver earthquakes: Science, v. 161, no. 3848, p. 1301-1310.
• Raleigh, C.B., Healy, J.H., and Bredehoeft, J.D., 1972, Faulting and crustal stress at Rangely, Colorado, in Heard, H.C., Borg, I.Y., Carter, N.L., and Raleigh, C.B., [editors], Flow and fracture of rocks: American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph 16, p. 275-284.

"Faulting" and Related Fracture-Enhanced Permeability of Landslides

• Cronin, V.S., 1992, Compound landslides -- Nature and hazard potential of secondary landslides within host landslides, in Slosson, J.E., Keene, A.G., and Johnson, J.A., [editors], Landslides/landslide mitigation: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America, Reviews in Engineering Geology, v. IX, p. 1-9.

Earthquake focal mechanisms and the Seismo-Lineament Analysis Method

• Cronin's focal mechanism primer (http://serc.carleton.edu/files/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/Focal_mechanism_primer.pdf)
• Cronin, V.S., 2014, Seismo-Lineament Analysis Method (SLAM), using earthquake focal mechanisms to help recognize seismogenic faults, in Grutzner, C., Choi, J-H., Edwards, P., and Kim, Y-.S., [editors], Proceeding of the 5th International INQUA Meeting on Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics and Archeoseismology, 21-27 September 2014, p. 28-31, ISBN 9791195344109 93450; available via http://CroninProjects.org/Vince/SLAM/CroninINQUA_PATA14.pdf
• Cronin, V.S., Millard, M., Seidman, L, and Bayliss, B., 2008, The Seismo-Lineament Analysis Method (SLAM) -- A reconnaissance tool to help find seismogenic faults: Environmental and Engineering Geology, v. 14, no. 3, p. 199-219.

A running tally of what we've covered

• January 14-16. Introductory stuff

And now, a word from our university...

Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Interpersonal Violence Policy

Baylor University does not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender in any of its education or employment programs and activities, and it does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of sex or gender. This policy prohibits sexual and gender-based harassment, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, stalking, intimate partner violence, and retaliation (collectively referred to as prohibited conduct). For more information on how to report, or to learn more about our policy and process, please visit https://www.baylor.edu/titleix/. You may also contact the Title IX office directly by phone, (254) 710-8454, or email, TitleIX_Coordinator@baylor.edu.

Except for Confidential Resources, all University Employees are designated Responsible Employees and thereby mandatory reporters of potential Title IX violations. Confidential Resources who do not have to report to Title IX include those working in the Counseling Center, Health Center and the University Chaplain, Dr. Burt Burleson.

The Title IX office understands the sensitive nature of these situations and can provide information about available on- and off-campus resources, such as counseling and psychological services, medical treatment, academic support, university housing, and other forms of assistance that may be available. Staff members at the office can also explain your rights and procedural options if you contact the Title IX Office. You will not be required to share your experience. If you or someone you know feels unsafe or may be in imminent danger, please call the Baylor Police Department (254-710-2222) or Waco Police Department (9-1-1) immediately.

Suggestions for improving this reading list should be directed to Vince_Cronin@baylor.edu.

If you have any questions or comments about this site or its contents, drop an email to the humble webmaster.
All of the original content of this website is © 2016 by Vincent S. Cronin