FAULT SYSTEMS OF THE EARTH

Abstract

Specialists in structures of ore districts and in a broad field of tectonics attributed the formation of a regular fracture network to oriented pressure during folding. It is noteworthy that regardless of their position relative to the orientation of the folding, the four principal fracture systems trending in latitudinal, meridional, northeastern and northwestern directions appear everywhere, although they may differ genetically, depending on the orientation of the folds and direction of the forces applied. One example of regularly oriented ore-controlling zones with relatively high degree of fracturing is the East Sikhote Alin tin belt. The principal tin-ore clusters are situated at the intersections of differently trending faults. Besides small-scale fracturing and regional faults, we distinguish a regular orthogonal network of global faults that cut differently oriented structures without changing direction.