The type of fault produced by shear stress is called a strike-slip fault.

• A. Strike-slip fault
• B. Normal fault
• C. Reverse fault
• D. Oblique-slip fault

Answer: (A)

Shear stress makes adjacent blocks slide past each other horizontally. When that horizontal motion dominates, the fault that forms has a vertical plane and movement along the fault is mainly lateral, which is called a strike-slip fault. A famous example is the San Andreas Fault, where blocks slide past one another side to side. If the stress were pulling the crust apart, you'd get a normal fault with the hanging wall moving down. If the crust is being squeezed, a reverse fault forms with the hanging wall moving up. When motion includes both horizontal sliding and some vertical movement, that’s oblique-slip. So the fault produced by shear stress is strike-slip.