Geological Structures
Geological Structures
Geological Structures
Introduction
Over the past thousand million years in Earths history, the
crust has been mobile.
Deformation arises because Earths plate moving relative to
each other.
This type of activities lead to compression and tension
stresses and provide a record of deformations.
Deformation of Rocks
Three different kind of stresses:
Compression
Tension
Shear
Deformation of Rocks
Every rock has a fracture limit that responds to stress
which is:
Brittle
Deformation of Rocks
Every rock has a fracture limit that responds to stress
which is:
Ductile
Deformation of Rocks
The factors that govern the way a rock deform are as
follows:
Confining pressure and temperature.
Time over which the stress is applied.
Types of Deformation
Fractures/Faults
Joints
Fractures/Faults
Faults are fractures which have had displacement of the rocks
along them.
Fault commonly create zones of broken ground - weaker and
less stable than the adjacent rock.
Sudden movements along faults may cause earthquakes.
Fault Categories
Normal Fault
Reverse Fault
Lateral Fault
Oblique Slip Fault
Fractures/Faults
Dip or dip-angle:
The maximum angular deviation of the inclined layer from horizontal.
the maximal angle of slope of a tilted stratum measured directly downward
from the horizontal plane.
The direction of dip is perpendicular to the strike.
Natural example of strike and dip. The strike of the dipping rock
surface is marked by its intersection with the water surface
Joints
These are rock fractures with no movement along them and
tend to break a rock mass into a network of blocks.
They are formed by tectonic stressing and are developed in
nearly all rocks.
Dominant fractures within sedimentary rocks are usually the
bedding planes.
Many bedding planes are very thin bands or partings of shale or
clay between units of stronger rocks.
Massive rocks have less fractures, joints or structural
weaknesses.
Joints
Folds
Folds is a bend or flexure in layered rocks.
It is the most common kind of deformation in layered rocks
usually well collision of developed in great mountain systems
due to the collisions of tectonic plates.
They may be gentle, moderate or strong.
Folds may be rounded or angular.
Folds
Folds Categories:
Monocline
Are folds in which horizontal or gently dipping bed are
modified by simple step-like bends.
Anticline
Up-arched rocks in which the older rocks are in the centre and
the younger rocks are on the flanks.
Syncline
Folded downwards in which the younger beds in the centre
and the older rocks on the flanks diagram of folds.
Monocline
Anticline
Syncline
Unconformity
This is the plane or break between two sequences or rocks
with different dips.
It indicates a period of earth movements and tectonic
deformation between times of sediment deposition.
It forms a major structural break - the older rocks must be
more lithified and perhaps more metamorphosed, than the
younger rocks above unconformity.
Conclusion
Already have structures inside Earths crust.
Can be differentiate between one to another.
Pressures are most influential element.
Shows us how God works through this element.