In geophysics, a fault is a fracture or zone of fractures within Earth’s crust along which measurable displacement has occurred due to tectonic stress. Faults accommodate brittle deformation and are characterized by a fault plane (or surface), a slip direction, and associated structures such as fault gouge and breccia. They are classified by kinematics into normal, reverse (including thrust), and strike-slip types, reflecting the dominant stress regime (extensional, compressional, or shear). Faults influence strain localization, fluid migration, and seismicity, with many earthquakes resulting from sudden slip episodes governed by frictional and elastic properties of the surrounding rocks.
When tectonic plates move, they rarely do so smoothly. Sometimes they slide almost imperceptibly; at other times, stress is suddenly released—resulting in an earthquake. What exactly governs this behavior remains one of the ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 9, 2026
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The Cascadia Subduction Zone is unusually quiet for a megathrust fault. Spanning more than 600 miles from Canada to California, the fault marks the convergence of the Juan de Fuca and North American plates. While other subduction ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 27, 2026
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An earthquake typically sets off ruptures that ripple out from its underground origins. But on rare occasions, seismologists have observed quakes that reverse course, further shaking up areas that they passed through only ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 18, 2026
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The magnitude 6.9 earthquake that took place in 2018 on the south flank of Kīlauea on the Island of Hawaiʻi may have stalled episodes of periodic slow slip along a major fault underlying the volcano, according to a new study ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 5, 2026
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A swarm of small earthquakes within the Karoo Basin in South Africa has revealed a critically stressed fault that could be perturbed by potential shale gas exploration in the area, according to a new report. The analysis ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 3, 2026
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A study on tectonic plates that converge on the Tibetan Plateau has shown that Earth's fault lines are far weaker and the continents are less rigid than scientists previously thought. This finding is based on ground-monitoring ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2026
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According to researchers from Science Tokyo, a new three-dimensional model of the fault beneath the Marmara Sea in Turkey reveals where a future major earthquake could take place. Using electromagnetic measurements, the team ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 19, 2026
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Geologists from Heriot-Watt are part of an international research team that has confirmed why the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake off northeast Japan behaved in such an extreme and destructive way.
Earth Sciences
Jan 19, 2026
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By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 15, 2026
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The fault beneath Istanbul doesn't behave the way scientists once thought.
Earth Sciences
Jan 12, 2026
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