The Growth of Faults

Understanding the growth and development of faults is one of the classic problems of geology, rock mechanics, and engineering geology. Existing theories are based mainly on short-term, lab bench size laboratory experiments that are then scaled to geologic time-scales and map scales. This approach has been far from satisfying. This projects seeks to continue theoretical and field studies directed at developing models that describe the growth and development of faults. Creation of successful models will have tremendous implications in terms of allowing for the prediction of the location of fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs, the direction of propagation of fractures along loaded fault segments, and analyzing ancient fault motions.