Interpretation of chaotic jointing near fault planes: a new approach

We suggest a new approach to study apparently chaotic jointing near faults of different geometries. It implies matching jointing stereograms to standard patterns developed for strike-slip, reverse, thrust, and normal faulting. The standard patterns correspond to joint triplets that regularly initiate in small rock volumes under second-order stress fields during the formation of fault zones. The approach was tested for the cases of failure in bedrock and unconsolidated sediments and showed up as an efficient tool for investigating the origin, structure, and evolution of faults.