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Review of the Fractal Character of Natural Fault Surfaces with Implications for Friction and the Evolution of Fault Zones

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Fractals in the Earth Sciences

Abstract

Surface roughness has been a topic of considerable interest within the engineering community for many years, primarily because surface roughness affects the frictional properties and wear of sliding surfaces, the properties of electrical contacts, and the stiffness of machine parts (Thomas, 1982). Most engineering studies however concentrate on surfaces that can be described using Euclidean geometry rather than the type of surfaces described by fractal geometry. The reason is that almost all man-made surfaces, and many natural ones, mimic simple Euclidean geometric forms, such as spheres, cylinders, planes, or their derivatives. Euclidean shapes have great practical importance; for example, ball bearings function well because they are close approximations to spheres, while a mirror provides an undistorted reflection because it is a close approximation to a plane.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. W. L. Power

    Present address: CSIRO Exploration and Mining, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    W. L. Power & T. E. Tullis

Authors
  1. W. L. Power
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  2. T. E. Tullis
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Christopher C. Barton

  2. Golder Associates Inc., Redmond, Washington, USA

    Paul R. La Pointe

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Power, W.L., Tullis, T.E. (1995). Review of the Fractal Character of Natural Fault Surfaces with Implications for Friction and the Evolution of Fault Zones. In: Barton, C.C., La Pointe, P.R. (eds) Fractals in the Earth Sciences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1397-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1397-5_5

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