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Mechanical stratigraphy encompasses the mechanical properties, thicknesses, and interface properties of rock units. Although mechanical stratigraphy often relates directly to lithostratigraphy, lithologic description alone does not adequately describe mechanical behavior. Analyses of normal faults with displacements of millimeters to 10's of kilometers in mechanically layered rocks reveal that mechanical stratigraphy influences nucleation, failure mode, fault geometry, displacement gradient, displacement distribution, fault core and damage zone characteristics, and fault zone deformation processes. The relationship between normal faulting and mechanical stratigraphy can be used either to predict structural style using knowledge of mechanical stratigraphy, or conversely to interpret mechanical stratigraphy based on characterization of the structural style. This review paper explores a range of mechanical stratigraphic controls on normal faulting illustrated by natural and modeled examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze small scale examples of thrust faults and related folding in outcrops of the Cretaceous Boquillas Formation within Big Bend National Park in west Texas to develop detailed understanding of the fault nucleation and propagation that may aid in the interpretation of larger thrust system structure. Thrust faults in the outcrop have maximum displacements ranging from 0.5 cm to 9 cm within competent limestone beds, and these displacements diminish both upward into anticlines and downward into synclines within the interbedded and weaker mudrock layers. We interpret the faults as having nucleated within the competent units and partially propagated into the less competent units without developing floor or roof thrusts. Faults that continued to propagate resulted in hanging wall anticlines above upwardly propagating fault tips, and footwall synclines beneath downwardly propagating fault tips. The observed structural style may provide insights in the nucleation of faults at the formation scale and the structural development at the mountain-range scale. Décollement or detachment layers may be a consequence rather than cause of thrust ramps through competent units and could be over interpreted from seismic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suggest that faults in high slip tendency orientations tend to develop larger displacements than other faults. Consequently, faults that accumulate larger displacements are more likely to be reliable indicators of the longer term stress field and should be weighted accordingly in paleostress estimation. Application of a stress inversion technique that uses slip tendency analyses and fault displacements to interpret populations of coherent normal faults within the Balcones Fault System of south-central Texas provides stress estimates that are consistent with established regional stress analyses. Although the method does not require measurement of slip directions, these data, where available, and sensitivity analyses of the angular mismatch between measured slip directions and those predicted by inverted stress states provide high confidence in the stress estimates generated using slip tendency analyses. Close inspection of the fault orientation and displacement data further indicates that subpopulations of faults with orientations different from the regional pattern have formed in response to stress perturbations generated by displacement gradients on an adjacent seismic scale fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In normal faulting regimes, the magnitudes and orientations of the maximum and minimum principal compressive stresses may be known with some confidence. However, the magnitude of the intermediate principal compressive stress is generally much more difficult to constrain and is often not considered to be an important factor. In this paper, we show that the slip characteristics of faults and fractures with complex or nonoptimal geometry are highly sensitive to variation or uncertainty in the ambient effective intermediate principal stress (σ′2). Optimally oriented faults and fractures may be less sensitive to such variations or uncertainties. Slip tendency (T s) analysis provides a basis for quantifying the effects of uncertainty in the magnitudes and orientations of all principal stresses and in any stress regime, thereby focusing efforts on the most important components of the system. We also show, for a normal faulting stress regime, that the proportion of potential surfaces experiencing high slip tendency (e.g., T s ≥0.6) decreases from a maximum of about 38% where σ′2 = σ′3, to a minimum of approximately 14% where σ′2 is halfway between σ′3 and σ′1, and increases to another high of approximately 29% where σ′2 = σ′1. This analysis illustrates the influence of the magnitude of σ′2 on rock mass strength, an observation previously documented by experimental rock deformation studies. Because of the link between fault and fracture slip characteristics and transmissivity in critically stressed rock, this analysis can provide new insights into stress-controlled fault transmissivity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is the sole candidate site for underground disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The mountain is composed of Tertiary (12.8–11.6 Ma) volcanic tuff, cut by west-dipping normal faults that divide the mountain into north-trending, east-dipping cuestas. Geologic characterization of Yucca Mountain by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has focused on mapping lithostratigraphic units, faults (including single plane, small-displacement surfaces of discontinuity, and large-displacement fault zones), and fractures (quasi-planar zones that have experienced loss of cohesion, including joints, partially mineralized joints, veins, and small-displacement faults). Faults and fractures are important to repository design because they affect seismic hazard, rockfall, and fluid transmissivity in the surrounding rock mass. Geologic maps and detailed studies of rock pavements and tunnel walls reveal that faults and fractures within Yucca Mountain are not uniform in orientation or intensity. We investigate two aspects of distributed deformation arising from fault displacement patterns at Yucca Mountain. First, fault-parallel strains (elongation parallel to cutoff lines where stratigraphic horizons intersect fault planes) develop as a result of lateral fault displacement gradients. Using existing data, we analyze the likely state of strain in fault blocks at Yucca Mountain. Second, fault-strike-perpendicular strains can develop where two normal faults propagate past each other. A component of the total strain is distributed into the surrounding rock to produce synthetic layer dip or a network of smaller faults and fractures. We find that small-scale faulting and fracturing at Yucca Mountain is variable and is strongly controlled by larger scale fault system architecture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

At low differential effective stress and with minimum principal effective stress near zero or tensile, rocks fail in several modes and with variable failure angles. Under these conditions mechanical stratigraphy exerts a significant influence on initial dip of normal faults. Less competent layers fail in shear mode along fractures that approximate the failure angle predicted by a standard rock mechanics analysis. Deformation of more competent layers, which is driven in part by interaction with the more rapidly deforming incompetent layers, produces hybrid mode failure in which failure angles are smaller than in shear mode. Analyses of small-displacement (<1 m displacement) normal faults cutting Cretaceous carbonate strata in west Texas (USA) indicate that fault geometries resulting from this effect commonly display steep segments where the fault traverses more competent beds. Displacement on these faults has caused dilation of steeper segments. Analogous steep dilational fault segments host ore deposits in the North Pennine Orefield, England. Dilatant segments along faults within carbonates of the Cretaceous age Edwards Group near San Antonio, Texas (USA) have been enlarged by groundwater flow, and are important permeability and shallow groundwater infiltration pathways. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The occurrence of hybrid failure – the transition from tensile to shear failure – has been controversial. Production of hybrid failure in laboratory experiments in recent years has strengthened the case for hybrid failure, but field recognition has remained elusive. In this paper, we present data from a small-displacement fault in the Hidden Valley fault zone at Canyon Lake Gorge, Texas, which is refracted through mechanically layered carbonates and exhibits surface characteristics expected for hybrid failure on steep fault segments. We discuss field criteria for identifying hybrid fractures and the deformation conditions under which hybrid failure is to be expected. Documented field examples of hybrid fractures are rare, yet presence of hybrid fractures can be useful indicators of stress conditions at the time of failure. Specifically, hybrid fractures are likely indicators of tensile minimum effective stress and low differential stress at failure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]