Gravity‐induced stresses near topography of small slope

Abstract

SUMMARYAn approximate, analytical solution is found for the gravity-induced stresses in the neighbourhood of an axisymmetric topographic feature on an elastic half-space. The solution is in the form of a perturbation expansion in powers of the characteristic slope, E . The leading order problem, at 0(1), is for a distributed normal load on a plane half-space. The O(E) correction is due to a distributed shear traction. The vertical variation of the near-surface stress perturbation and the rotation of the principal stress directions are O(E) eNects, and thus include contributions of like order from both the normal and shear loads. The method requires general solutions for axisymmetric, normal and shear tractions of arbitrary radial distribution, and these are found in terms of Hankel transforms.

How Sensitive Are Fault-Slip Rates in the Los Angeles Basin to Tectonic Boundary Conditions?

“…Another factor that may cause local variations in slip rate results is the high topography of the San Gabriel Mountains north of the Sierra Madre fault, topography not considered in our half-space models. Because the influence of topography extends to approximately the height of the topography, topographic effects are localized near topographic gradients (McTigue and Mei, 1981). The San Gabriel Mountains should only influence stresses along the upper portion of the Sierra Madre fault.…”

Fault linkage: Three‐dimensional mechanical interaction between echelon normal faults

“…By modeling faults at the surface of a halfspace, we explicitly include free-surface effects in the calculation of stress, although we disregard effects due to topographic relief [McTigue and Mei, 1981]. Applichtion of these results may also extend to some buried normal fault systems.…”

Lineament domain analysis to infer groundwater flow paths: Clues from the Pale di San Martino fractured aquifer, Eastern Italian Alps

“…These fractures and faults are likely the most conductive and would behave as preferential groundwater flow paths in the fractured reservoir. It should be considered that in the upper portion of the crust (~700 m) this effect overlaps with local topographic effects (McTigue, and Mei, 1981). However, due to the regionalscale analysis of this study, topographic effects were not considered by the present paper.…”