Different Types Of Naturally Occurring Fracture Networks

With our observation of the Shawangunk formation, we see a sedimentary rock formation containing a range of grain size. Such sizes range from pebbles (3cm-5cm), fine-grain sand, and medium-grain sand. There is some grading towards the bottom left of the outcrop known as a reverse grading with some small cross beds present (Figure 2). The grading occurs towards a slight part of the outcrop where we see the grading beginning as fine grain sediments and working up to coarser grain. With moderate sorting we see variations of degree of sorting per bed. As the degree of sorting varies as does the sphericity. The sediment bedding is well seen ranging in sizes of +/--20 cm to 40 cm. This outcrop has thick beds as one can see the basic units with cracks in between each (Figure 3). With mostly tabular beds consisting of sub-angular, and sub-rounded sediments, this outcrop also consists of some ventricular beds (Figure 4). When looking at figure 4, we have a small space of a ventricular bed present. This is because the bed comes in, pinches thicker bedding,

Plate Tectonics is a scientific theory which study how the Earth’s plates are driven and shaped by geological forces to keep them in constant movement. The theory explains the present-day tectonic behavior of the Earth, particularly the global distribution of mountain building, earthquake activity, and volcanism in a series of linear belt. (Pitman, W.C., 2007)

According to Townend and Zoback (2004) the San Andreas Fault (SAF) region has been noted for its possession of stress orientations in addition to the lack of a distinct heat flow anomaly at the trace of the fault. These findings indicate that there are average shear tractions that are less than 20-25 MPa in the seismogenic upper crust. Oftentimes, shear tractions measure approximately 5 times greater than in the SAF. Due to the presence of high

Determine the relative age each of the geologic structures shown in the geologic cross section below (Figure 9.17) from youngest to oldest; then answer the questions below. As before, a wiggly line running across the geologic cross section indicates an unconformity and a fault is indicated with a bold straight line.

Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from Geoscience Laboratory. Select answers are provided for you in red font to assist you with your lab work. Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged to answer others from the text on your own.

• This earthquake may not have released all of the strain stored in its rocks next to the fault this reveals a potential earthquake in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the near future. The occurrence of the earthquake showed that the Earth did not exhaust all its strain and hence other earthquakes could be expected. However, the dates could not be predicted. The extent of the damage could have been much more devastating for the region, but with the earthquake occurring near the coast this made half of the felt area westward in the Pacific Ocean. The occurrence of aftershocks ten days later reinforces the unpredictability nature and hence makes Geology to be a study that is always evolving. In conclusion, the Earth and the study of cannot be exhausted as every natural occurrence provides a new puzzle to be solved.

With earthquakes on the rise, we must figure out the cause of them and determine a solution to help limit or even prevent them from occurring. Since early 2009, earthquakes have been sweeping across the state of Oklahoma, causing many people to worry about their own well-being. Many scientists speculate the source of the earthquakes might be a result of Hydraulic Fracturing deep down in Earths’ crust. Hydraulic fracturing is a process in which oil and natural gas companies pump up to millions of gallons of wastewater, sand, and chemicals down drilled holes in order to release pockets of shale within the earth. This use of technology is in question of the potential cause or inducement of earthquakes in

One of the major things noticeable from the cross section is that quite a few of the rock layers are over turned, where the older rock layers are above the newer rock layers. This is seen in the contact between the Quartz Monzonite of Papoose Flat and the Campito Formation which is also a disconformity. Next there is some fault zones separating the Camptio, Poleta, and Harkless formations. We then see some more overturned layers with the contacts between Saline Spring Valley Formation (lower and upper members) above the Mule Spring Formation along with some inferred folding. With a normal fault separating the inferred folding event, we see where the overturning occurs. In between the Cambrian layers we see Tertiary Basalt nonconformities also being folded, thus with that we know that the folding event was more recent than the formation of the Basalt. Next there is a large Basalt field with a spot of the Harkless formation. Again we see over tuning as the Basalt field ends there are the Devonian and Mississippian rock Layers on top of the basalt. Separating these overturned layers from the Harkless Formation and the Saline valley Formation (upper member), which are not overturned, is a thrust fault. From this information, there was a major stress event sometime after the Tertiary period causing the rock layers to fold and overturn. And from this stress event and from the folding, normal and thrust faults are formed. Finally we see that there were alluvial and landslide deposits from the Quaternary after the folding, faulting, and over

water fractures within the earth. Causing certain areas of the land to have an earthquake effect

Neotectonic frames show comparable arrangements. Therefore, with respect to any given region the peaks of A-tents indicate comparable directions. New fault scarps have a tendency to be correlated with the territorial lineament

All of the volcanic and metasedimentary rocks are metamorphosed, whose grades are extending from greenschist to upper amphibolite, characterized by low-pressure but high-temperature (Isachsen & Bowring, 1994). The influence of basement fracture zone is reflected in the homoclinal and abruptly alternated trends of the volcanic belts, which is more frequently found in the southwestern domain of the province, while north belts show angular patterns (Fyson & Helmstaedt, 1988; Padgham,1992; Padgham & Fyson, 1992). Except for the sharp dips of the volcanics, regional-scale folds, foliations and cleavages over several successions shown in the metasedimentary rocks are studied to understand the deformation and metamorphism (Isachsen & Bowring, 1994). Fyson & Helmstaedt (1988) compare three major types of folds which are ranked by their ages and sizes from oldest, most extensive F0 to minor-sized, cleavage-foliation-associated S3 folds with intermediate type F1 between them and they suggest that the parallel trend and they suggest both foliation and folds are results of syntectonic

Bone used four distinct faultlines to support his descriptions of each regions of Canada. He argued that we can analyze Canada’s geography by outlining four tensional faultlines and they include; English and French Canadians, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, centralist and decentralist, and the , and immigration forces. According to Bone, faultlines refers to the economic, social and political cracks that divide region and people. For example, he mentioned about the centralist and decentralist faultlines. The majority of national population is concentrated in the central Canada and often supported from central government and national policies, while other provinces are out of interest. When the role of federal government was to maintain

Oklahoma is an oil rich state and as such has seen the production of oil and gas become one of the most important economic activities of the region. The methods applied during this process such as the controversial hydraulic fracturing has come under increased scrutiny as it has been termed as one of the main causes of increased seismic activity in the state. Scholars, researchers and scientists on their quest to reveal the truth of the matter have reveaied different causes to explain the seismic behavior. This paper will therefore focus on these research findings that attempt to answer the

Anisotropy is the idea that the rocks properties vary with direction, so it is very important in which way that the rock was oriented compared to the load, or the compression, that is applied to the rock. This means that orientation of the bedding that varied between 0 degrees and 90 degrees was very important. The scientists used Thomsen’s parameters to quantify the elastic anisotropy. A few ways that the scientist recognized this was that when brittle shale was preceded by a change in the P wave anisotropy. This was because of the crack growth and mineral reorientation that was discussed earlier. Next, anisotropy variations were the largest for the shale that was deformed perpendicular to the bedding, so when the bedding angle was closer to 90 degrees. When the confining pressures were at the highest, the anisotropy variations were the largest, which makes a lot of sense when we know that the anisotropy is the idea that the properties of rocks vary with different orientation and it created anisotropy reversal at high confining pressures. The last information the scientists found was that the P wave anisotropy change was weak when the shale deformed parallel to the bedding, and this is because it could not take a lot of pressure because of the way it was

Scientist are struggling to come up with a widely accepted model that will explain the role of non-vertical strike-slip fault segments, crustal movement and deformation within Pacific –North American plate boundary. Multiple methods of analysis are being used; some of which are described below.