Preliminary quantitative study of fault reactivation induced by open-pit mining

Research highlights
► The increased tensile stresses and the decreased and shear strength of the fault plane caused the occurrence of the fault reactivation.
► The shear displacements on the fault plane decrease with the depth of the fault, ending off downward to the end of the reactivated section.
► Under the assumption of linear elasticity, the ratio of the scarp lengths in any two stages is equal to the squared ratio of the reactivated lengths.
► The preliminary research are verified and discussed based on physical experiments.