Slip preference on pre-existing faults: a guide tool for the separation of heterogeneous fault-slip data in extensional stress regimes

Synthetic fault-slip data have been considered in the present paper, in order to examine through a simple graphical manner the validity and use of the widely mentioned and applied criteria such as the slip preference, slip tendency, kinematic (P and T) axes, transport orientation and strain compatibility. The examination and description concern extensional stress regimes whose greatest principal stress axis (σ1) always remains in vertical position as in Andersonian stress states. In particular, radial extension (RE), radial–pure extension (RE–PE), pure extension (PE), pure extension–transtension (PE–TRN) and transtension (TRN) are examined with the aid of the Win-Tensor stress inversion software. In all of these extensional stress regimes only extensional faults can be activated. The lower dip angle of the reactivated faults is about 40° assuming that the coefficient of friction is no smaller than 0.6. The increase of the stress ratio and/or the fault dip angle up to 70° results in the increase of the slip deviation from the normal activation. Based on the present examination of the slip preference and slip tendency in different extensional stress regimes, a new simple and practical method is proposed herein in order to separate originally heterogeneous fault-slip data into homogeneous fault groups, by which different extensional stress regimes could be determined. The application of the method on the already published fault-slip data of Lemnos Island supports its validity since over 90% the resulted fault groups and stress regimes coincide to the already published ones.

► Study of extensional stress regimes whose greatest principal stress axis is in vertical position.
► Stress ratio and its role to the fault slip preference and fault slip tendency.
► Examination of kinematic axes, strain compatibility and transport orientation in extensional stress regimes.
► New simple and practical method for separating extensional heterogeneous fault-slip data into homogeneous subsets.