“…(1) density inversion by differential compaction between the host succession and the overlying strata (Henriet et al, 1988;Watterson et al, 2000); (2) internal layer-parallel extension of the host succession driven by gravitational sliding (Higgs and McClay, 1993;Clausen et al, 1999); (3) hydraulic fracturing due to differential compaction and overpressure build-up (Cartwright, 1994a,b); (4) syneresis (i.e., spontaneous contraction of a sediment-water gel (Dewhurst et al, 1999); (5) low coefficients of residual friction that are too low to sustain in situ stresses along the fault plane (Goulty, 2001(Goulty, , 2002(Goulty, , 2008); (6) particle dissolution during diagenesis, which induces tensile stresses of sufficient magnitude for normal faulting (Shin et al, 2008;Cartwright, 2011); and (7) yielding, which describes behavior of clays not captured by classic Mohr-Coulomb or Drucker-Prager criteria (Laurent et al, 2012). There is thus clearly a lack of consensus on the mechanism driving polygonal faulting, reflecting, at least in part, our poor understanding of their kinematics.…”