Currently deployed services are deployed using version 1.2 of this content model which has been reviewed by NGDS project technical teams and adopted for use by other NGDS projects.

SLDs (Styled Layer Descriptors) can be downloaded from the State Geothermal Data Repository. The legend for the Active Faults model is represented by line features according to the FGDC symbology scheme (with additions further specifying activity during the early Quaternary).

Faults are typically represented on maps by the linear outcrop trace where the fault intersects the Earth Surface. Thus the feature service for fault uses a line feature class for the geometry. This linear geometry cannot simply be represented in a spreadsheet, so a template for service deployment provides as an ESRI personal geodatabase (which is a Microsoft Access .mdb file). In addition, for consistency with point-based content models, an Excel Workbook is provided with work sheets for the data provider metadata, description of fields in the template, and vocabularies recommended for use in interchange documents. For those that do not have software that will work with the geodatabase file, a zip archive containing a shape file feature class is included. The shape file truncates field names and text values that are strings longer than 255 characters. If some field contain text longer than 255 characters, fault descriptions should be loaded into the excel worksheet included with the shape file. In that case, be sure that there is a key to uniquely join the shape field information with the fault description information.

This content model includes data elements that are in the content model for Geologic Map/faults, as well as elements providing information specific to Quaternary faults relating to slip rates, time since most recent activity.

The AASG namespace URI for XML schema implementing this content model is http://stategeothermaldata.org/uri-gin/aasg/xmlschema/activefault/ . Version number is appended as the terminal token in individual schema version instances, e.g. for version 1.1 the URI is http://stategeothermaldata.org/uri-gin/aasg/xmlschema/activefault/1.1 .

The Quaternary fault model is based on the GeoSciML-portrayal content model for 'ShearDisplacementStructure', with the addition of content of special interest to active or recently active faults. In the GeoSciML model, 'Shear displacement structure' represents the broad category of structures across which there has been shear displacement with any sense. This category includes all brittle to ductile style structures along which displacement has occurred, from a simple, single 'planar' brittle or ductile surface to a fault system comprised of 10's of strands of both brittle and ductile nature. This structure may have some significant thickness (a deformation zone) and have an associated body of deformed rock that may be considered a DeformationUnit (Definition from GeoSciML model - see http://www.geosciml.org/geosciml/2.0/doc/GeoSciML/GeologicStructure/Shea...).

An individual fault feature in a Quaternary fault data set is defined by a unique combination of name, URI, geologic history, slip, and orientation properties, as well as the inference that it represents a physically connected surface in the Earth. For mapped active or recently active faults, which are the scope of this scheme, the deformation style is assumed to be brittle (as opposed to ductile).