9405162 Wiltschko In many fold and thrust belts faults are found more commonly in weak lithologies such as mudrocks. Despite this, little is known about the micromechanical behavior of mudrock, principle because of the very small grain size and the difficulty of performing laboratory experiments with the material this project is designed to determine the characters and mechanics of mudrock deformation is natural, small displacement, thrust fault zones using a combinations of observation techniques ta several scales. Results will be compared to data sets on mudrock fabrics that are the result of burial diagenesis, and with a set of experimented deformation of mudrock samples. This work is expected to help understand in a more quantitative way the mechanical properties of natural thrust fault zones.
