Strain and scaling of faults in the chalk at Flamborough Head, U.K.

Peacock, D.C.P. and Sanderson, D.J. (1994) Strain and scaling of faults in the chalk at Flamborough Head, U.K. Journal of Structural Geology, 16 (1), 97-107. (doi:10.1016/0191-8141(94)90021-3).

Abstract

Analysis has been made of the orientations, displacements and spacings of 1340 extensional faults, with displacements of up to 6 m, along an almost completely exposed 6 km length of cliff. This data set has been used to study how fault populations account for strain in a region and to study relationships between different scales of fault. Strains have been estimated; the maximum and intermediate extensions are sub-horizontal, with approximately equal extension (e ? 0.01) in all horizontal directions. It can be inferred that the minimum extension (maximum compression) was sub-vertical, but that the wide variety of fault orientations and cross-cutting relationships resulted from variable horizontal extensions. Some faults have oblique-slip slickenside lineations, which imply a period of later, dominantly NNW-SSE extension, which possibly developed as the exposure-scale faults linked up E-W-striking larger-scale normal faults, effectively forming a single wide fault zone.

Graphs of displacement per unit distance are used to illustrate variations in displacement. The scaling of fault displacement appears to follow a power-law relationship. The differences in orientation between the small-scale and large-scale faults precludes a simple estimation of the total strain over all scales.

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Contributors

Author: D.J. Sanderson

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