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Stresses in a block around a dipping fracture simulating a damage zone of a fault are reconstructed by finite-element modeling. A fracture corresponding to a fault of different lengths, with its plane dipping at different angles, is assumed to follow a lithological interface and to experience either compression or shear. The stress associated with the destruction shows an asymmetrical pattern with different distances from the highest stress sites to the fault plane in the hanging and foot walls. As the dip angle decreases, the high-stress zone becomes wider in the hanging wall but its width changes negligibly in the foot wall. The length of the simulated fault and the deformation type affect only the magnitude of maximum stress, which remains asymmetrical relative to the fault plane. The L-h/L-f ratio, where L-h and L-f are the widths of high-stress zones in the hanging and foot walls of the fault, respectively, is inversely proportional to the fault plane dip. The arithmetic mean of this ratio over different fault lengths in fractures subject to compression changes from 0.29 at a dip of 80 degrees to 1.67 at 30 degrees. In the case of shift displacement, ratios are increasing to 1.2 and 2.94, respectively.