NORMAL FAULT Definition & Meaning

normal fault

[nawr-muhl fawlt]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

Geology.

a fault along an inclined plane in which the upper side or hanging wall appears to have moved downward with respect to the lower side or footwall (reverse fault ).

normal fault

A geologic fault in which the hanging wall has moved downward relative to the footwall. Normal faults occur where two blocks of rock are pulled apart, as by tension.
Compare reverse fault See Note and illustration at fault

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First recorded in 1875–80

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Examples have not been reviewed.

Like most faults in Arizona, it is a normal fault.

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At Powhatan High School, where social groups fall along the normal fault lines, students maintain friendships on either side of the political divide.

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The second is an extra crack, known as a normal fault, to the southwest of the strained boundary.

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The mouth of the canyon is at the Grand Wash Cliffs, which were formed by down-to-the-west movement on the Grand Wash normal fault starting ~17 Ma.

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Previously such faults were thought to generate only about 3 percent of such tsunamis, as opposed to normal faults in which one block drops downward.

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