DIMINUTION OF FAULTS 259 



Faults must be comparatively superficial phenomena, because 

 under sufficient load any rock, however rigid, will behave like a 

 plastic body, and will adjust itself to stress by flowage. If this 

 be true, faults must diminish downward, passing probably into 

 flexures below. Faults may also diminish and die away upward, 

 when the fractured beds are much more brittle than those which 

 overlie them. 



