Email Print Share
April 30, 2010

Fault Architecture

Studies have shown that certain low-angled faults are much weaker than expected, due to how the fabric of the fault is structured. When composed of fine-grained talc and smectite in a continuous layered architecture, the fault is much weaker than when the fabric is randomly oriented.

This image accompanied NSF press release, "It's Not Your Fault--A Typical Fault, Geologically Speaking, That Is."

Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation


Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1.1 MB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.