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05-10-2015, 05:09 PM
The article below is interesting:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/09/us/texas-e...index.html
It is basic structural geology that if you increase the fluid pressure in a fault, it weakens the fault. The fluid serves to reduce the effective friction that keeps a fault from slipping: I think it decreases the effective normal stress ("normal" means perpendicular to the fault surface: it is the stress that holds a fault together).
I may have this wrong; has been a long time, but I think fault strength is related to the coefficient of friction combined with the effective normal stress.
Chris
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/09/us/texas-e...index.html
It is basic structural geology that if you increase the fluid pressure in a fault, it weakens the fault. The fluid serves to reduce the effective friction that keeps a fault from slipping: I think it decreases the effective normal stress ("normal" means perpendicular to the fault surface: it is the stress that holds a fault together).
I may have this wrong; has been a long time, but I think fault strength is related to the coefficient of friction combined with the effective normal stress.
Chris