Geology
Definitions and images to illustrate geological terms, links to images and website articles
fault attributes
Net-slip comprises dip vector component and horizontal vector components.
a. net-slip = total slip of fault.
b. dip-slip = dip-parallel slip component.
c. strike-slip = strike-parallel slip component.
d. vertical-throw = vertical component of net-slip.
e. horizontal-throw = horizontal component of net-slip.
f. heave = stratigraphic heave = apparent horizontal component of the net-slip.
Vertical throw, which is the vertical component of net-slip, is different for dipping strata than stratigraphic throw, which is the vertical offset of faulted strata.
If the hanging wall, which lies above the fault, moves downward relative to the footwall, then the fault (as in diagram) is a normal fault. A detachment fault is a regional, low-angle, listric normal fault formed during crustal extension. Listric faults are curved normal faults in which the fault surface in concave upwards because the main detachment fracture following a curved path rather than a planar path. Slumps are listric faults.
Crustal extension stresses create sunken graben blocks bounded by parallel normal faults and lying between horst blocks that lie higher than the sunken graben blocks. Compressional forces during orogenies can elevate horst blocks.
If the hanging wall is thrust upward above the footwall, then the fault is a reverse fault. A thrust fault is the special case of low dip-angle faults that formed during regional compressional deformation.
If the predominant movement is in the horizontal direction, then the fault is a strike-slip fault (transform fault or wrench fault). The term tear fault can be used to indicate a steeply-dipping wrench fault that bounds or cuts the hanging wall of a thrust or normal fault (also used for mode III faults).
Labels: deformation, dip-slip, footwall, hanging wall, heave, horizontal-throw, net-slip, rake, strike-slip, vertical-throw
faulting
Stresses build in rocks where friction prevents simple slippage. Stresses initially cause deformation of rock structures, and only when accumulated potential energies exceed the strain threshold will rock bodies fail and relative motion occur across the fault.
Initially, rock failure may occur on a small scale (microfracturing, microseismicity). However, continued compression can cause the large-scale slippage associated with seismic events (tremors and earthquakes).
▪ normal
▪ reverse (thrust) faults such as the hugh Lewis Thrust
Labels: Blue Anchor, Death Valley, deformation, fault lines, faulting, Hayward Fault, Keraf Suture, San Andreas Fault
| 0 Guide-Glossaryfold anatomy
Folds may be symmetrical or asymmetrical. In a symmetrical fold (image at left), the axial plane is vertical and the limbs (sides) dip symmetrically from the axis. In an asymmetrical fold, the axial plane is tilted from the vertical with one limb dipping more steeply than the other.
By convention, plunge direction is expressed as a three-digit number, and the plunge by a two-digit number. Thus, a line plunging 35º toward the azimuth 35º will be noted: 45º->035
Monoclinal folding drapes strata as though over a ledge, whereas hinge folding wraps the limbs of a fold as though hinged around the fold axis.
However, the apparent shape of a fold may be distorted by the angle of erosional exposure relative to the fold axis (image at left).
(Try this with a stick of celery.)
├ .. On geological maps, the stike and dip of bedding, rather than axes and folds, are indicated.
▪ faulting ▪ fault attributes – net-slip, dip-slip, dip vector, strike-slip, vertical-throw, horizontal-throw, horizontal vector, heave, rake
Labels: axial plane, dip, fold anatomy, fold axis, fold hinge, fold limbs, strike
| 0 Guide-Glossaryfolding
Folds may be isolated or may occur in extensive fold trains, and folding may range from the microscopic scale to mountain-sized folds in orogenic belts. Folds are classified according to size, fold shape, tightness, and dip of the axial plane.
Folding can occur by flexural slip, buckling, or mass displacement under under varying conditions of stress, hydrostatic pressure, pore pressure, and temperature.
Slumping of material before deformation causes synsedimentary folds. Folding orientation can produce:
links: images: plunging anticlines and synclines north of Moab, UT; Folding Satellite Images gallery; Capitol Reef, UT, satellite image and false color image of a monocline and syncline crossed by transverse stream; Capitol Reef Fold, Capitol Reef from ground, 3D anaglyphic images (needs 3D glasses), wp; anticline, 2; folds, 2; fold axes; fold and unconformity; kink fold; kink fold in mountains; refolded; overturned fold; synclinal; close folding and lineations, White Mountains, NH; complex folds in shale and sandstone, Cumana, Venezuela; ductile thrust faulting and large-scale fold nappes, 2, and complex fold interference patterns produced during formation of the fold nappes; Lower Palaeozoic Gondwanan sediments (ca. 500 My) metamorphosed and folded during Variscan Orogenesis (ca 350 My), Aiguilles Rouges, Lac d'Emosson; folding in schist; chevron fold, road cut Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, NY; fold, 2, road cut, Catskill, NY; California fold; sheath fold with strongly curved hinge line; glaciotectonic fold, Melabakkar, and close up, 2, 3; ptygmatic folding in quartz vein in Archean metasediments; folded Cambrian limestones and shales, Bay of Islands, Newfoundland ; large folds (Osceola) indicate laterally directed strain away from 4 km distant transient crater (Weaubeau structure of southwestern Missouri); folds in the Barranquin Formation, northeastern Venezuela; webpages: Geology Gallery : Folds : Geological Structures : Secondary Rock Structures : Mouser
Labels: anticline, basin, deformation, dome, folding, monocline, ptygmatic fold, recumbent folds, slumping, syncline, synsedimentary
fractional crystallization
As ascending melts cool and react with country rock, those minerals in the melt that have the highest melting points or the lowest solubilities (quick-freezing refractories, like olivine and pyroxene) crystallize out first, leaving minerals with the lowest melting points or solubilities (quick-melting fusibles, like silica) behind in the melt to freeze out last.
Latent heat associated with phase change is released by the crystallization of refractories, replacing heat lost by conduction to the surrounding country rocks, lost to melting of country rock, and lost to the assimilation of fusibles in the country rock. Fusibles enter and refractories leave the melt at characteristic temperatures and pressures, and these exchanges tend to occur at specific depths along the ascent. The remaining melt loses volume as it rises, rendering its fusibles increasingly concentrated. Thus, exchanges within ascending magma leave behind a trail of solid refractories and country rock alterations.
Gravitative differentiation is the commonest form of fractionation, and results from the phenomenon that most solid minerals are denser than their parent melts. As denser crystals settle to the bottom of the magma body, they become segregated from the residual melt. Rocks that are formed by settling crystals are termed cumulates, and the rocks are often zoned, with the densest, first-formed crystals accumulated at the base of the magma chamber. Cumulates formed by the lighter crystals occasionally float to the top, with the lightest at the very top. This process produces layering in igneous rocks. The crystals of cumulate rocks are typically cemented by residual magmatic fluids.
▪ Bowen's Reaction Series
[links: animations: fractional crystallization/magmatic settling; webpages: Kurt Hollocher's webpage on Greenland's Eocene Skaergaard Intrusion has a gallery of excellent photographs of microrhythmic layering (and other interesting phenomena); Mining: Rock Formation]
Labels: assimilation, cement, cumulates, fractional crystallization, fusibles, gravitatitve differentiation, layering, magmatic differentiation, refractories
fusibles and refractories
Sedimentary rocks, which are stable at the Earth's cool surface, tend to be fusible because they consist mostly of stable minerals that have resisted weathering. Crystalline rocks tend to be refractory and to resist melting because they consist mostly of minerals that crystallized out of melts. The most refractory rocks, such as gabbro and peridotite, are stable in the lower crust and the mantle.
▪ Bowen's Reaction Series
Labels: fusibles, gabbro, peridotite, refractories, sedimentary rock
| 0 Guide-Glossary