What is a fracture?

In a general way, fracture defined as the discontinuity which breaks the rock beds into blocks along cracks, fissures, joints or whatever they may be referred to as, and along which there is no displacement parallel with the planes of discontinuity. Basically, whether a fracture is considered a joint or a fault depends on the scale of investigation.

From a strictly geo-mechanical point of view a fracture is the surface in which a loss of cohesion has taken place. Since rupture refers to a process which results in the loss of cohesion of a given material, a fracture is then the result of a rupture. In general, a fracture in which relative displacement has occurred can be defined as a fault, while a fracture in which no noticeable displacement has occurred can be defined as a joint.