A numerical answer needs an assumption about fault orientation. For a cohesionless fault optimally oriented for Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, with vertical , write for the internal friction angle and for the fault dip. The angle between the plane and is , so the optimal normal-fault dip relation gives
Hence under that model.
For the Mohr circle, plot effective compression horizontally and shear stress vertically. Draw a circle with diameter tangent to . Its centre and radius obey . One illustrative normalization is , , with tangency at the resolved stresses on the plane. Pore fluid pressure shifts the total-stress circle horizontally; the friction law uses effective stress.
Figure 1.
Original normalized Mohr circles for optimally oriented normal faults: different dips imply different tangent slopes only under the stated failure model
. Details.
The dip does not determine the actual sliding coefficient of friction without the optimal-orientation assumption. A reactivated inherited plane may be nonoptimal, cohesion may matter, and the stress ratio and pore fluid pressure are not measured. For an arbitrary compression-positive stress state,
at cohesionless sliding. Thus the requested single value is a conditional inference, not a friction measurement.
Use the same conditional optimal normal-fault dip relation as in question 1, with :
The second panel of the original Mohr circle figure has and ; its tangent from the origin has slope . Resolving the stresses onto a plane places its stress point at that tangency. The diagram assumes negligible cohesion, a vertical maximum principal stress and an optimally oriented new or equivalently oriented sliding plane. Without those assumptions, a dip and a statement that sliding began do not uniquely determine the coefficient of friction.