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Journal of the Geological Society

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Using footwall structures to constrain the evolution of low-angle normal faults

^{1 1}Reactivation Research Group, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (e-mail: steven.smith{at}durham.ac.uk)
^{2 2}Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universita di Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy

Controversy exists over the presence of normal faults that initiate and slip at low angles (<30°). Evidence from the Zuccale Fault, which dips c. 15° east on the island of Elba, Italy, indicates that the early stages of low-angle faulting were synchronous with development of subsidiary high-angle footwall faults. These footwall structures controlled fault rock distribution and caused the development of flow folds similar to those produced in analogue studies of synchronous high- and low-angle faulting. The current configuration of footwall structures indicates that the Zuccale Fault cannot have originally dipped greater than c. 20° east, and represents a primary low-angle normal fault.