Fracture terminology

A list of fracture related terms:

 Fracture – any surface of discontinuity within a layer of rock

 Vein – a fracture filled with minerals precipitated out of an aqueous solution
 Dike – a fracture filled with sedimentary or igneous rock not originating in the
fracture formation
 Joint – a natural fracture in the formation in which there is no measureable shear
displacement
 Shear fracture – fractures across which shear displacement has occurred
 Fault – (in a geologic sense) a fracture surface upon which there has been
sliding
 Fracture trace – the line representing the intersection of the fracture plane with
the surface
 Fracture tip – the point at which the fracture trace terminates on the surface
 Fracture front – the line separating the rock that has been fractured from the
rock that has not
 Griffith cracks – preexisting microfractures and flaws in the rock
 Axial stretching – fracture mechanism resulting from a remote applied tensile
force that creates fractures perpendicular to the tensile load axis
 Longitudinal splitting – fracture mechanism resulting from compression along an
axis that creates fractures parallel to the load axis
 Wing cracks – tensile fractures created as a result of propagating shear fractures
 KIC – critical stress intensity factor, aka fracture toughness – the stress intensity
at which tensile fracture propagation may occur
 Asperities – tiny bumps and protrusions along the faces of fractures
 Pore fluid pressure – the pressure exerted by the fluid within the rock pores
 Lithostatic pressure – the weight of the overlying column of rock
 Cataclastic flow – microscopic ductile flow resulting from small grain-scale
fracturing and frictional sliding distributed across a large area.