Strike-slip fault

Slip faults, also transverse displacement, horizontal displacement or lateral displacement, are in geology tectonic faults, in which layers to slide past a vertical fault plane together. Journal shift refers not only to the fault structure, but also the forces caused by the tectonic movement process of rock units. Unlike other warping -slip faults have no hanging wall or Lying.

Earthquake to strike-slip faults

The movement on a strike-slip fault is usually not without friction of the abutting of the fault surface rock layers vonstatten. The fault surface is often irregular or curved, in addition to the displacement pressure is almost never oriented parallel to, but usually at an angle, so that there will be additional movement. For this reason, caused by the shift repeatedly earthquake.

Right and Left shift

Strike-slip faults can be divided into left ( sinistral ) and distinguish right-handed ( dextral ) shifts. To determine the handedness of the direction of movement of the past from the viewer beyond the strike-slip fault block is detected. If he moves to the left (left -lateral and left -sided, engl. ) The fault is left-handed, he moves to the right, it is right-handed (also on the right side, Eng. Right- lateral). This is also true when viewed from the other side is done: a left-side fault remains on the left side also from this perspective. The orientation of the fault and the direction of displacement is irrelevant in this context.

Examples of strike-slip faults

Slip faults occur in all regions of the upper crust, where tectonic movements have shaped the former, determined by sedimentation or magmatism Geology afterwards. The most extended -slip faults that extend over thousands of kilometers, can be found at the boundaries of tectonic plates, where they are called transform faults. Known examples of such transform faults on the continents are the San Andreas Fault in California (USA) or the North Anatolian fault in northern Turkey.