In a chair display, one looks at a horizontal slice where it intersects a vertical section. You are able to see a fault's map pattern along with its offset in a cross-section view. Various other kinds of volumetric display also help to study and visualize faults. Much of the science of fault detection concerns the recognition of subtle faults. Some extra care and attention in data collection and processing is always beneficial.
Coherence is an invention of five years ago that has had a beneficial impact on fault recognition.
The coherence transformation suppresses the continuity of seismic reflections and emphasizes discontinuities such as faults. Coherence data is best viewed as time slices or as a whole coherence cube. In good quality data, faults can be strikingly evident and spatial patterns of faulting can be clearly discerned. Figure 2 is a time slice through a salt dome showing the common pattern of radial faults. The upper half of the time slice is in coherence and the lower half is the normal time slice display in amplitude.