Exercise 1‌

Fractures and faults are common structures in geology, and each kind of geological environment has specific controls on how these structures occur. Fractures and faults are important in groundwater flow systems as they often serve as primary flow pathways. The geology has a strong influence on the fracture network geometry and connectivity, and thus it is important to understand both the geology of the host rock and the fracture network to assess groundwater flow. The following diagram illustrates simplified kinematics for three fracture types.

Schematic diagram showing basic kinematics of fractures a) On the blue lines, correctly insert each kinematic type pointed to by the blue arrows. b) Describe the type of fracture that forms from each of these three kinematic scenarios. c) Using the relationship between two adjacent points of a fracture, describe the displacement discontinuity concept of S.L. Crouch (1976) that was presented in Figure 6.

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