Abstract. This study investigates how lithological changes can affect the strike-slip fault propagation patterns using analogue models. Strike-slip fault zones are long structures that may cut across pre-existing tectonic or lithological steep boundaries. How strike-slip faulting is affected by a laterally heterogeneous upper crust is crucial for understanding the evolution of regional and local fault patterns, stress reorientations, and seismic hazard. Our models undergo sinistral distributed strike-slip shear (simple shear) and have been analysed by particle image velocimetry (PIV). We use quartz sand and microbeads as brittle analogue materials over a viscous mixture to distribute the deformation through the model. The first models investigate strike-slip faulting in a homogeneous upper crust using quartz sand or microbeads only. Three further models examine how the presence of a central section which laterally differs in its properties influences strike-slip faulting. The main observations are the following: The homogeneous upper crust shows typical Mohr–Coulomb strike-slip faults, with synthetic fault strikes related to the angle of internal friction of the material used. The heterogeneous upper crust has a profound effect on synthetic fault propagation, interaction, and linkage, as well as the kinematic evolution of antithetic faults that rotate around a vertical axis. The orientation of the central section determines whether antithetic fault activity concentrates along the entire length of the central contact or not. In the first case, fault activity is segmented or the number of different faults formed is increased in distinct domains. In the second case, the properties of the central material determine fault propagation, interaction, and/or linkage across the central domain. These findings have potential implications for nature that have been seen in the NW Iberian Peninsula. In this area, the change in direction of the sinistral faults and the position of the antithetic faults can be explained due to lithological change.

Sandra González-Muñoz

Guido Schreurs

Timothy C. Schmid

Fidel Martín-González

Solid Earth

SOLID EARTH (SE) 是一本非营利性期刊，发表关于地球从地表到深部内部所有空间和时间尺度的组成、结构和动力学的多学科研究。该杂志以简短的交流、研究文章、方法文章、评论文章以及关于固体地球各个方面的讨论和评论的形式邀请包括观察、实验和理论调查的投稿（详情请参阅手稿类型）。作为跨学科范围，SE 涵盖以下学科：地球化学、矿物学、岩石学、火山学；大地测量学和重力学；地球动力学：地球过程的数值和模拟建模；地电学和电磁学；地磁学；地貌学、地貌构造学和古地震学；岩石物理学；地震学和地震学；临界区科学（地球可渗透的近地表层）；地层学、沉积学和古生物学；岩石变形、构造地质学和构造学。

Solid Earth (SE) is a non-profit journal that publishes multidisciplinary research on the composition, structure, and dynamics of the Earth from the surface to its deep interior across all spatial and temporal scales. The journal invites submissions in the form of brief communications, research articles, method articles, review articles, and discussions and comments on various aspects of solid Earth, encompassing observational, experimental, and theoretical investigations (for details, please refer to the manuscript types). As an interdisciplinary journal, SE covers the following fields: geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology, volcanology; geodesy and gravimetry; geodynamics, including numerical and simulation modeling of Earth processes; geoelectrics and electromagnetics; geomagnetism; geomorphology, structural geomorphology, and paleoseismology; rock physics; seismology; critical zone science (the permeable near-surface layer of the Earth); stratigraphy, sedimentology, and paleontology; rock deformation, structural geology, and tectonics.

《Solid Earth》是一本非营利性期刊，专注于地球从表面到深部内部的组成、结构和动力学的多学科研究。该期刊欢迎以简短交流、研究文章、方法文章、评论文章及关于固体地球各个方面的讨论和评论的形式投稿，涵盖观察、实验和理论调查等多种类型的研究（详情请参阅手稿类型）。《Solid Earth》的跨学科范围包括：地球化学、矿物学、岩石学、火山学；大地测量学和重力学；地球动力学，包括地球过程的数值模拟和建模；地电学和电磁学；地磁学；地貌学、地貌构造学和古地震学；岩石物理学；地震学；临界区科学（近地表层的可渗透性）；地层学、沉积学和古生物学；岩石变形、构造地质学和构造学。

Category	Quartile
地球科学	2
地球科学, 地球化学与地球物理	2

Influence of lateral heterogeneities on strike-slip fault behaviour: insights from analogue models

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Journal Info

Category	Quartile
GEOCHEMISTRY & GEOPHYSICS	1