Print this pageKinematics
of the propagation and growth of normal faults: implication for petroleum
geology
Catherine Baudon, 3D Lab, Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences department, Cardiff University, Wales, U.K., [email protected]
Detailed fieldwork and recent improvements
in both numerical 
studies
and seismic data have led to the development of
several different models for the kinematic evolution
(initiation, propagation, linkage) of normal faults that can be divided into
two general categories. One suggests that a single isolated fault grows by
radial propagation in a scale-invariant manner as the slip increases, with no
migration of the point of nucleation. The second model explains the growth of
faults by linkage of initially isolated faults that propagate towards each
other, overlap and subsequently link.
This project aims to test these models and
understand the mechanics and kinematics of fault growth in a range of different
structural and depositional contexts.
In order to
address this problem, geometrical and displacement analysis have been carried
out using 3D seismic datasets from the offshore Nile Delta (fault geometry and length, fault zone thickness, throw, tip
gradients and gross morphology of linkage structures. A simple geometrical
approach based on expansion index, cumulative and incremental throw was used to
define the fault
growth histories.
A field analogue
study carried out on small-scale relay structures located in the