The type of stress force that produces a strike-slip fault is____________

The type of stress force that produces a strike-slip fault is____________

• A. Tension
• B. Compression
• C. Shearing
• D. Torsion

Answer: (C)

Strike-slip faults are created by shear stress, which acts parallel to the fault surface but in opposite directions on each side. This pushes blocks of rock horizontally past one another, producing the side-by-side displacement characteristic of strike-slip faults. Tension stretches the crust and leads to normal faults with vertical movement, while compression pushes rocks together to form reverse or thrust faults with vertical movement. Twisting forces can occur, but they don’t produce the primary horizontal slip along a vertical fault plane. So the stress type responsible here is shear stress, the force that drives lateral sliding along the fault.

Strike-slip faults are created by shear stress, which acts parallel to the fault surface but in opposite directions on each side. This pushes blocks of rock horizontally past one another, producing the side-by-side displacement characteristic of strike-slip faults. Tension stretches the crust and leads to normal faults with vertical movement, while compression pushes rocks together to form reverse or thrust faults with vertical movement. Twisting forces can occur, but they don’t produce the primary horizontal slip along a vertical fault plane. So the stress type responsible here is shear stress, the force that drives lateral sliding along the fault.