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.
Atoms slip against one another, eventually sticking in various combinations. Tectonic plates do the same, sliding across each other until they stick in a stationary state. Everything from the tiniest particles to unfathomably ...
General Physics
Jun 23, 2025
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Researchers have developed a laboratory earthquake model that connects the microscopic real contact area between fault surfaces to the possibility of earthquake occurrences. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 6, 2025
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Seismological research is directly related to the incubation, occurrence, and evolution of earthquakes. Scientists seek to reveal potential earthquake precursors by monitoring the stress state of fault zones, thus providing ...
Earth Sciences
May 30, 2025
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When we think of earthquakes, we imagine sudden, violent shaking. But deep beneath Earth's surface, some faults move in near silence. These slow, shuffling slips and their accompanying hum—called tremors—don't shake buildings ...
Earth Sciences
May 14, 2025
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About 240 miles long, Utah's Wasatch Fault stretches along the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains from southern Idaho to central Utah, running through Salt Lake City and the state's other population centers. It's a seismically ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 30, 2025
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At the Seismological Society of America's Annual Meeting, researchers posed a seemingly simple question: how wide are faults?
Earth Sciences
Apr 18, 2025
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When Julian Lozos visited the site of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes two days after the event, he noticed something strange. Pebble- to boulder-sized rocks had clearly been moved by the earthquakes—but there were no signs ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2025
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Below California's famed beaches, mountains and metropolitan areas lies a sinister web of earthquake faults—some so infamous that their names are burned into the state's collective consciousness.
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2025
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A new analysis of earthquake rupture directivity provides essential insights for seismic hazard and risk assessments in urban areas, particularly concerning the Main Marmara Fault near Istanbul in western Türkiye.
Earth Sciences
Mar 14, 2025
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