Abstract
The geometry of fracture systems was analysed at various scales in the western Arabian sedimentary cover rocks. Investigations covered a wide range of scales, from regional surveys to outcrops in well-exposed areas, and were based on the field mapping of fractures, and the interpretation and digitizing of fracture patterns on aerial and satellite images. As a first step, a ground structural analysis was carried out, which provided a better understanding of the relationships of joint and fault systems related to Red Sea rifting. Secondly, fracture datasets were subjected to statistical and geostatistical analyses of direction, size, spacing and density, and the variability in these quantities with space and scale. The main result of this combined approach is that fracturing is not a self-similar process from the centimetre scale up to the 1000-km scale. In this case, the spatial organization of joints and faults appears to be highly controlled by both the Red Sea extensional regime and the thickness of the different mechanical layers that constitute the crust at different scales, i.e., sedimentary beds, basins and the seismogenic crust. Abstract Copyright (1996) Elsevier, B.V.