From Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin (www.beg.utexas.edu).
For more information, please contact the author.

Bureau Seminar, September 28, 2012

Faulting Processes in Carbonate Rocks and Influence of Mechanical Stratigraphy

David Ferrill
Department of Earth, Material, & Planetary Sciences
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)

Deformation in layered carbonate sequences is strongly influenced by mechanical properties of the strata. Brittle failure versus ductile deformation, mode of brittle failure, and the evolution of deformation processes in fault zones are all strongly controlled by the mechanical stratigraphy. This presentation will provide an overview of recent developments in understanding faulting processes in carbonate rocks from field-based research on Cretaceous carbonates in central and west Texas and the French Alps.