The Qadimah Fault has been mapped as a normal fault running through the middle of a planned $$$50 billion city. For this reason, there is an urgent need to evaluate the seismic hazard that the fault poses to the new development. Although several geophysical studies have supported the existence of a fault, the driving mechanism remains unclear. While a fault controlled by gravity gliding of the overburden on a mobile salt layer is unlikely to be of concern to the city, one caused by the continued extension of a normal rotational fault due to Red Sea rifting could result in a major earthquake. A number of geomorphology and geodetic techniques were used to better understand the fault. An analysis of topographic data revealed a sharp discontinuity in slope aspect and hanging wall tilting which strongly supports the existence of a normal fault. A GPS survey of an emergent reef platform which revealed a tilted coral surface also indicates that deformation has occurred in the region. An interferometric synthetic aperture radar investigation has also been performed to establish whether active deformation is occurring on the fault. Ground movements that could be consistent with inter-seismic strain accumulation have been observed, although the analysis is restricted by the limited data available. However, a simple fault model suggests that the deformation is unlikely due to continued crustal stretching. This, in addition to the lack of footwall uplift in the topography data, suggests that the fault is more likely controlled by a shallow salt layer. However, more work will need to be done in the future to confirm these findings.

In the subsurface faults can act as both barriers and conduits for fluids or gases such as CO2, hydrocarbons, or water. It is often thought that faults in porous rocks such as sandstone are barriers to fluid flow. In this study we show that this is not always the case. In sandstones like the Cedar Mesa Sandstone it is very important to understand the relationships between this history of fault slip and fluid flow. Better understanding of how fluids migrate through faults and the damaged areas surrounding these faults has strong significance to the oil and gas industry. In this study we examine a group of faults and their surrounding damage zones near Hite, Utah. We analyze three of these small-scale faults in more detail. In doing so we give insights into how these faults and their damage zones can effect fluid migration as well as the porosity and permeability in the Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Whole rock geochemistry, X-ray diffraction mineralogy, permeability data, petrography, ultraviolet photography, and outcrop observations were used to gain insights into cross-cutting relationships, past fluid compositions, and fault characteristics. From the data that was collected from these faults we have begun to describe a series of structural and fluid flow events. This series allows us to say that small-scale faults and fractures are features by which fluids can migrate preferentially. In this series of events we isolate two separate phases of movement. The first phase of movement being has a component of shear in which the edges of the fractures are not moving directly apart. This event is accompanied by a fluid flow event the emplaced iron oxide in the fractures and the surrounding formation. The second event is a phase when the faults become reactivated by a stress that created open mode fractures. This second is accompanied by a fluid flow event that has high calcium content and emplaces calcite in the fractures. Throughout this study we give evidence to support this series of movement and fluid events.

Understanding the interplay between surficial and tectonic processes in the development of Utah's Wasatch Range is vital to evaluating geologic hazards along the Wasatch Front. Baldy is a large (6.125 km3) block of limestone and sandstone structurally overlying shale on the western flank of Mount Timpanogos. It has been mapped as a downdropped normal fault block of Permian units, but no other trace of such a fault exists along the range. The Baldy block structurally overlies the weak Manning Canyon shale, which has produced a regional geomorphology replete with faceted spurs, landslide scarps and deposits. Structural, bio- and litho-stratigrahic mapping of the block reveals breccia deposits, bed rotation and stratigraphic and structural relations to Mount Timpanogos consistent with a landslide interpretation. Structural reconstructions of the block and calculations of stream downcutting rates help constrain the timing and sequence of events of the block's emplacement. These results attest to the importance of surficial processes in the development of large-scale geologic structures, and demonstrate the ongoing danger of mass wasting to the communities of the Wasatch Front.

In the Basin and Range province of southwestern North America, Oligocene and Miocene normal faults are superimposed upon the Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary magmatic arc. This study examines tilted fault blocks containing dismembered pieces of porphyry systems, including pieces below and peripheral to ore bodies, that are exposed at the modern surface. Features in the magmatic-hydrothermal porphyry systems are used to place constraints on the style of extension in Arizona, and reconstructions of extension are used to examine the deep and peripheral portions of porphyry systems to provide a more complete understanding of porphyry systems as a whole. The Eagle Pass, Tea Cup, and Sheep Mountain porphyry systems of Arizona are examined in this study. In all the study areas, previous interpretations of the style of extension involved strongly listric normal faults. However, similar amounts of tilting observed in hanging wall and footwall rocks, as well as structure contour maps of fault planes, require that down dip curvature on faults was minimal (<1°/km. Instead, extension is shown here to have occurred as sets of nearly planar, "domino-style" normal faults were superimposed upon one another, including in the Pinaleño metamorphic core complex. Reconstructions of Tertiary extension reveal that sodic (-calcic) alteration is occurs 2-4 km peripheral to, and greisen alteration is found structurally below and overlapping with, potassic alteration. In addition, a preliminary reconstruction of extension across the Laramide magmatic arc reveals that the geometry, as revealed by known porphyry systems, is of similar scale to that of other magmatic arcs. These results help further the debate surrounding competing models of continental extension, and combine with previous work to provide a more complete understanding of the geometries of Arizona porphyry systems at the district and arc scale.

The East Shetland Basin is a superb natural laboratory in which to study the role that normal fault growth and linkage has in determining petroleum prospectivity. Use of several high density 3D seismic volumes and over 250 boreholes permits key aspects of the Late Jurassic rift and its Permo-Triassic precursor to be analysed and its role on hydrocarbon trap formation, reservoir distribution and migration determined. The regional interpretation has revealed the generation of a North Sea archipelago of Upper Jurassic islands, the role of relay ramps in controlling syn-rift sediment dispersal patterns and the impact of normal faults of the later episode crossing and offsetting those generated by the earlier phase. The uplift, erosion and meteoric flushing of Upper Jurassic and older strata within the exposed fault blocks could potentially have huge consequences for the Brent play by enhancing reservoir properties and hence, help identify new play opportunities down-dip of major structures. Fault control on sediment dispersal can also be documented in a more localized study on the Cladhan Field, the site of a pronounced basin-margin relay ramp. This recent discovered set of syn-rift density flows illustrates how the development and distribution of depositional gradients and transport pathways form subtle play types. The Cladhan area is just one of several locations throughout the East Shetland Basin where the interaction of multiple rift phases is influential in the structural feedback after the Upper Jurassic rifting event. The delicate interaction and reactivation of underlying structural trends creates a series of multi-tiered fault block systems which can define several aspects of a petroleum system, depending upon the strike, polarity and level of reactivation of faults from one rift to another. The observations of fault growth and linkage in the Northern North Sea may provide generic lessons that help in determining petroleum prospectivity in other hydrocarbon rift basins (e.g. E. Africa and the N. Atlantic seaboard of North America).

Geologic mapping, basin analysis, and tephrochronologic analysis in the Clifton quadrangle of southeast Idaho indicates that the modern Basin-and-Range topography is only a few million years old and that the bulk of Cenozoic extension was accommodated by slip on an older low-angle normal-fault system, the Bannock detachment system. The detachment system was active between ~12 and < 4 Ma and accommodated ~50 % extension. Cross-cutting relationships show that the master detachment fault, the Clifton fault, is the youngest low-angle normal fault of the system, was active at a low angle, and has not been rotated to a low-dip angle through time. Map patterns and relationships indicate that the hanging wall to the detachment system began as a cohesive block that later broke up along listric and planar normal faults that either sole into or are cut by the master detachment fault. The Miocene-Pliocene Salt Lake Formation, a syntectonic, basin-fill deposit of the Bannock detachment system, was deposited during three sub-episodes of extension on the detachment system. Depositional systems within the Salt Lake Formation evolved from saline/alkaline lakes to fresh water lakes and streams to braided streams in response to the changing structural configuration of rift basins in the hanging wall of the detachment system. After breakup of the hanging wall began, the master detachment fault excised part of the hanging wall and cut hanging-wall deposits and structures. The structural geometry of the Bannock detachment system strongly resembles that of detachments documented in metamorphic core complexes. Therefore, we interpret the Bannock detachment system as a proto-metamorphic core complex, akin to the Sevier Desert detachment fault. The Bannock detachment system also collapsed the Cache-Pocatello culmination of the dormant Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, much like the Sevier Desert detachment collapsed the Sevier culmination. Structures of the Bannock detachment system are overprinted by a second episode of extension accommodated by E- and NE-trending normal faults that may be related to subsidence along the Yellowstone hotspot track and a third episode of extension accommodated by high-angle, Basin-and-Range normal faults. This last episode of extension began no earlier than 4-5 Ma and continues today.

<p>The face of the Earth is constantly renewed by continental rifts that open and allow ridges to spread oceanic floor. Both types of these linear extensional structures are morphologically and structurally segmented. This thesis aims to provide insights into the interaction of such segments as they propagate and mature. It is based on the results of analogue models of evolving rifts and ridges together with field studies of populations of dilational normal faults in the active rift zone of Iceland. Linkage of initially separate segments along rifts and ridges leads to formation of through-going systems operating on a planetary scale. It is argued here that the processes of segment initiation and growth are effectively scale-independent and essentially the same in wide and narrow modes of extension and for shear and dilational failure. Three distinct types of segment coalescence are recognized; these involve tip-to-tip, one tip-to-sidewall and two tips-to-sidewalls segment linkage. The overall structural pattern, particularly the width of the extending domain and the range of displacements and orientations of smaller-scale internal extensional structures, is influenced by both the geometry of extension and the mechanical properties of the extending material. Types of segment linkage appear to be largely independent of localization of dilation or intensity of magmatic accretion. Instead they are controlled mainly by the relative distribution and orientation of interacting segments. A few orders of segmentation along global rift-ridge systems and arrays of dilational normal faults indicate that linear continuous structures accumulate extension in successive increments during which the segments change their geometries in semi-continuous interaction and coalescence.</p>

The face of the Earth is constantly renewed by continental rifts that open and allow ridges to spread oceanic floor. Both types of these linear extensional structures are morphologically and structurally segmented. This thesis aims to provide insights into the interaction of such segments as they propagate and mature. It is based on the results of analogue models of evolving rifts and ridges together with field studies of populations of dilational normal faults in the active rift zone of Iceland. Linkage of initially separate segments along rifts and ridges leads to formation of through-going systems operating on a planetary scale. It is argued here that the processes of segment initiation and growth are effectively scale-independent and essentially the same in wide and narrow modes of extension and for shear and dilational failure. Three distinct types of segment coalescence are recognized; these involve tip-to-tip, one tip-to-sidewall and two tips-to-sidewalls segment linkage. The overall structural pattern, particularly the width of the extending domain and the range of displacements and orientations of smaller-scale internal extensional structures, is influenced by both the geometry of extension and the mechanical properties of the extending material. Types of segment linkage appear to be largely independent of localization of dilation or intensity of magmatic accretion. Instead they are controlled mainly by the relative distribution and orientation of interacting segments. A few orders of segmentation along global rift-ridge systems and arrays of dilational normal faults indicate that linear continuous structures accumulate extension in successive increments during which the segments change their geometries in semi-continuous interaction and coalescence.

Gediz Graben is a continental extensional basin filled with Neogene sediments. Its margins are controlled by active ~E&amp / #8211 / W-trending fault systems with major system, in terms of total offset and duration of activity, located along the southern margin. The graben evolved as a half graben by the activity of the southern margin during the entire Miocene. Then, the northern margin-bounding structure initiated by Plio&amp / #8211 / Quaternary to form the current configuration of the graben with an inherited asymmetry. The southern margin-bounding fault system forms a graben-facing step-like pattern from the horst block (~2000 m) down to the graben floor (~200 m). The faults become younger towards the graben and the structural maturity decreases in the same direction. Fault plane data suggest ~N&amp / #8211 / S-oriented regional crustal extension through the entire graben history with no evidence of temporal change in the regional extension direction. Minor spatial variations are attributed to poorly defined s3-axis or local stress field anomalies caused by fault interactions. Evolution of the Gediz Graben is a dynamic process as indicated by pronounced changes in the geometry and lateral extend of the southern margin-bounding structures along strike and dip directions. This also influenced the lithofacies, depositional pattern and thickness of the graben fill units. The western Anatolian extension is episodic with earlier (Miocene) and later (Plio&amp / #8211 / Quaternary) phases of extension and intervening short phase of contraction (Late Miocene&amp / #8211 / Early Pliocene). Despite of this fact, evidence for the short-term intervening contractional phase throughout the Gediz Graben is scarce and there is local observation of folds and thrust/reverse faults affecting the AlaSehir formation. These structures suggest that the short-term phase of contraction might have existed but most probably been absorbed by the high rates of extension. This data may further imply that graben evolution from half-graben phase (Miocene configuration) to full graben phase (present day configuration) might be a discontinuous process accompanied by a short-time break in-between.

abstract: An array of north-striking, left-stepping, active normal faults is situated along the southwestern margin of the Gulf of California. This normal fault system is the marginal fault system of the oblique-divergent plate boundary within the Gulf of California. To better understand the role of upper-crustal processes during development of an obliquely rifted plate margin, gravity surveys were conducted across the normal-fault-bounded basins within the gulf-margin array and, along with optically stimulated luminescence dating of offset surfaces, fault-slip rates were estimated and fault patterns across basins were assessed, providing insight into sedimentary basin evolution. Additionally, detailed geologic and geomorphic maps were constructed along two faults within the system, leading to a more complete understanding of the role of individual normal faults within a larger array. These faults slip at a low rate (0.1-1 mm/yr) and have relatively shallow hanging wall basins (~500-3000 m). Overall, the gulf-margin faults accommodate protracted, distributed deformation at a low rate and provide a minor contribution to overall rifting. Integrating figures with text can lead to greater science learning than when either medium is presented alone. Textbooks, composed of text and graphics, are a primary source of content in most geology classes. It is essential to understand how students approach learning from text and figures in textbook-style learning materials and how the arrangement of the text and figures influences their learning approach. Introductory geology students were eye tracked while learning from textbook-style materials composed of text and graphics. Eye fixation data showed that students spent less time examining the figure than the text, but the students who more frequently examined the figure tended to improve more from the pretest to the posttest. In general, students tended to examine the figure at natural breaks in the reading. Textbook-style materials should, therefore, be formatted to include a number of natural breaks so that learners can pause to inspect the figure without the risk of losing their place in the reading and to provide a chance to process the material in small chunks. Multimedia instructional materials should be designed to support the cognitive processes of the learner. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Geological Sciences 2011