Physical Processes
Reverse Faulting
Tectonics and Volcanism
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Reverse faulting is the dip-slip motion in which the hanging wall block above an inclined fault plane is pushed upward and over the footwall block as the crust shortens under horizontal compression. A thrust fault is a shallow-dipping reverse fault carrying especially large horizontal displacement, and reverse and thrust faulting together are the mechanism that builds compressional mountain belts and generates the great subduction-zone earthquakes along convergent plate margins such as the Himalaya and the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Facts
Process Type TimescaleAn individual rupture is seconds; the fault system itself develops over thousands to millions of years. 1 First Proposed Year Sources
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