Strike-slip tectonics

For active strike-slip systems, earthquake ruptures may jump from one segment to another across the intervening stepover, if the offset is not too great.

[7] In detail, many strike-slip faults at surface consist of en echelon or braided segments, which in many cases were probably inherited from previously formed Riedel shears.

The identification of such structures, particularly where positive and negative flowers are developed on different segments of the same fault, are regarded as reliable indicators of strike-slip.

[8] Strike-slip duplexes occur at the stepover regions of faults, forming lens-shaped near parallel arrays of horses.

[10] These sub-parallel stretches are isolated by offsets at first, but over long periods of time, they can become connected by stepovers to accommodate the strike-slip displacement.

[9] In long stretches of strike-slip, the fault plane can start to curve, giving rise to structures similar to step overs.

[11] On contractional duplex structures, thrust faults will accommodate vertical displacement rather than being folded, as the uplifting process is more energy-efficient.

[11] Strike-slip duplexes are passive structures; they form as a response to displacement of the bounding fault rather than by the stresses from plate motion.

[11] Because the motion of the duplexes may be heterogeneous, the individual horses can experience a rotation with a horizontal axis, which results in the formation of scissor faults.

Major lateral offsets between large extensional or thrust faults are normally connected by diffuse or discrete zones of strike-slip deformation allowing the transfer of the overall displacement between the structures.

The process sometimes known as indenter tectonics, first elucidated by Paul Tapponnier, occurs during a collisional event where one of the plates deforms internally along a system of strike-slip faults.