STRUCTURE GEOLOGY

STRESS AND STRAIN

Mechanics deals with the effects of forces on bodies. A solid body subjected to
external forces tends to change its position or its displacement or its shape. During
rigid body deformation, rocks are translated and/or rotated while their original size
and shapes are preserved.

If a body absorbs some or all the forces acting on it instead of being moved, the body
becomes stressed. The forces then cause particle displacements so that the body
changes its shape: it becomes deformed. Strain is the change in shape, or non-rigid
body deformation of a rock caused by stresses.

In the Earth, the most important forces are due to gravity and to the relative motions
of large rock masses in the crust and in the mantle. Other possible forces are usually
small or act only for short periods of time so that no significant strain results.

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Movement-related forces act for relatively long times. Structural geology is concerned
with the permanent deformation (failure) that produces structures such as folds and
faults in rocks. If a rock fails by fracturing and loses cohesion, it is brittle. If the rock
has deformed without losing cohesion and retained intricate shapes when forces
stopped acting, the rock displays a permanent strain and has been ductile. The
behaviour of the rocks, that is whether they deform permanently or not and whether
any deformation is predominantly by folding, by faulting, or by yet other modes, is
influenced by the interplay of a number of physical and chemical factors. Thus, a
thorough understanding of the deformation process is important.

Physical definitions
Continuous medium
Rocks are complex assemblages of crystals, grains, fluids etc. whose properties and
physical parameters vary continuously. Continuous variation implies that these
parameters have spatial derivatives. It is therefore necessary to consider infinitely
small volumes of material in which physical properties are the same everywhere. This

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is a continuous medium that models real materials without considering their fine
structure. The mechanical discussion that follows considers rocks as continuous
media.
Newton’s axioms: Laws of motion
The Newton’s axioms state the moving conditions of a body in response to an
external quantity, the force, and a characteristic of the body: its mass (i.e. the
amount of material in the body). In dynamics, only the driving forces of the
movements are considered. Since deformation is the relative movement of
points, Newton's three laws of motion are taken as fundamental axioms.
Law 1, (inertia principle)
A body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line,
unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it. The rate
of such a “free-moving” body is constant in terms of magnitude and direction.
Law 2, (action principle)
The change of motion is proportional to the force impressed and is in the same
direction as the line of the impressed force.
Law 3, (reaction principle)
To every action F there is always opposed an equal reaction F R = - F ; or, the
mutual actions of two bodies on each other are always equal and directed to
opposite parts. For example, a falling rock pushes the earth as much as the
earth pushes the rock.

Dimension / Quantity
Mechanical properties of a material are expressed in terms of the three
independent, physical dimensions (i.e. measurable parameters) length [L],
mass [M], and time [T], [ ] meaning “has the quantity of”. Other dimensions,
such as electrical charge [Q] and temperature [θ], are derived dimensions. A
quantity is the numerically scaled magnitude of a physical dimension. These
units are meter (m), kilogram (kg), and second (s) for length, mass and time,
respectively.

Force
A force is what influences, or tends to change, the motion of a body.

Mathematical expression
A force possesses both magnitude and direction. Therefore, a force is a vector
quantity that follows the rules of vector algebra. Conventionally, an arrow in a
given coordinate system represents it.
- The length of the line specifies the amount of the force (e.g. how strong a
push is).
- The orientation of the line specifies its direction of action (which way the
push is).
- An arrow, pointing to the acceleration direction indicates the sense of
direction.

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The action principle states that a force F acting on a body of mass m will
accelerate the body in the direction of the force. The acceleration is inversely
proportional to the mass m and directly proportional to the acting force:

A force possesses both magnitude and direction. Therefore, a force is a vector

quantity that follows the rules of vector algebra. This relationship is written:

where is the mv product of mass and velocity, i.e. the momentum, and t is time.

The most familiar force known to us is the weight, which is per definition the
force experienced by a mass (the product of volume and density) in the
direction of gravity’s acceleration and hence normal to the Earth’s surface.
As any vector quantity, a force may be resolved into several components
acting in different directions, according to the parallelogram rule of vector
analysis. For example, any force F can be resolved in three components
labelled Fx , Fy , Fz, parallel to the coordinate axes x, y and z, respectively.
This is conveniently written in a column form:

Dimension
The unit and dimension of a force are defined from the second Newton’s law: .
The dimension has the form: F= m.a

The mass is a scalar quantity, i.e. it requires only one number to define it. Its
unit is the kilogram (1kg). Mathematically, a scalar is an entity also called a
zero-order tensor. Acceleration needs a coordinate system to be defined.
The mass is a scalar quantity, i.e. it requires only one number to define it. Its
unit is the kilogram (1kg). Mathematically, a scalar is an entity also called a
zero-order tensor. Acceleration needs a coordinate system to be defined.
The Newton and the dyne are the basic units of force (1 N = force required to
impart an acceleration of 1 m/s-2 to a body of 1 kg:

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Surface - body forces

Body forces
Body forces result from action of distant, outside forces (gravity,
electromagnetic field, etc) on every particle of the body; for example, gravity
acts on every atoms of a pen, producing its weight. Body forces are
consequently proportional to the mass, and hence to the volume of the body. In
purely mechanical systems the body forces are of two kinds, those due to
gravity and those due to inertia.

Surface forces
Surface forces (or applied forces) act on the external boundaries of a body as
well as on any imaginary or real surface within this body. No concrete physical
surface or visible material boundary is required. Surface forces, such as
friction, are proportional to the size of the area upon which they act. Surface
forces can result from action of the body on itself, such as the tension in a
stretched rubber band. Surface forces are usually generated beyond the
considered body and are transmitted to it through the whole mechanically
continuous region that connects it with the place where the force is exerted. For
example: the action to push on its extremity and displace a pen. In geology,
tectonic forces can be transmitted through the plate from its boundaries.

Ratio of the body forces to the surface forces

Since gravitational forces are proportional to mass, the weight of an overlying
column of rocks constitutes an important force on rocks at depth.
In general, each element of mass is in a state of dynamic equilibrium, which
means that the sum of body forces is equal and opposite to the sum of surface

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forces. If (dl) is the characteristic length of a small body element, the ratio of
body forces to surface forces is:

which tends to zero as dl tends to zero. The difference in power implies that the
magnitude of body forces diminishes more rapidly (considerably for large dl)
than that of surface forces. Consequently, if the volume element is small, the
body forces in equilibrium with themselves may be neglected.

Directed forces
Directed forces act in particular directions. In geology:
- Compression is a pair of in-line forces that tends to compress bodies;
- Tension is a pair of in-line forces that tends to pull bodies apart;
- Shear refers to coupled forces acting in opposite directions in the same plane
but not along the same line;
- Torsion is a twisting force.

Normal and shear components

A force acting on a plane is generally oblique to the surface and may be
resolved into vector components acting perpendicular and parallel to the plane.

F N and F S are the normal and shear forces, respectively. The shear component
facilitates slip on the plane while the normal component tends to prevent it,
pressing both sides of the plane towards each other.
In two dimensions, F , F N and F S are coplanar; the two perpendicular
components are defined according to the right angle trigonometry as:
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with θ the angle between the applied force and the normal to the considered
plane (line in 2D). The magnitude is obtained using the Pythagoras’ Theorem:

These equations show that the key to find the component magnitudes is to
know (i) the magnitude of the applied force vector and (ii) the angle it makes
with the plane.

Action / reaction; static equilibrium

Imagine a cube of rock within a large volume of rock assumed to be a
continuous material. The six faces of the imagined cube are pressed on by
adjacent parts of the rock while there are corresponding reactions from the
material within the cube. Newton’s reaction principle stating that forces occur
in pairs that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction expresses this
situation. In addition, each atom within the cube is acted on by gravity, but
each atom outside the cube also. Therefore, the general body force which is
equal everywhere can be, in a first approach, considered to be absent.

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In static equilibrium, the considered cube of rock is not moving and not
deforming. The system of forces is closed and the sum of all forces in all
directions equals zero. Static equilibrium is the situation treated to understand
natural geological forces.
In that case, forces on opposite faces cancel out and there is no net couple that
would rotate the cube. This again requires that forces on opposite faces be
equal in magnitude and opposite in sense. The shear forces on opposite faces
must also be balanced. To simplify the argument, we take the cube edges as the
principal axes of a three-dimensional coordinate system. Then the shear
component is resolved into two shear-components parallel to the face edges.

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Stress in a continuous medium

A stress is what tends to deform a body.
Definition
The magnitudes of the forces that act on the external faces of the cube depend
on the areas of these faces: the larger the cube, the larger the force required to
produce a change of shape or a movement. The situation is complicated by
variations in magnitude and direction of force from point to point over each
cube face. Therefore, it is convenient to have a measure of the deforming
forces that is independent of the size of the cube considered. This freedom in
calculation is procured by imagining the cube to shrink to a cubic point whose
infinitely small faces have area A = 1.
The significance of the area on which a force is applied is intuitively known to
all of us. The feet sink when walking on snow, less if one has snowshoes, and
one can even slip on skis. The force (weight of the person) acting on snow is
the same but increasing the contact area reduces the stress on snow. This shows
that the stress, and not the force, controls the deformation of materials (here
snow). Therefore, one needs to work with stress in order to investigate the
deformation of rocks.

Traction
The traction represents the force intensity with respect to the surface area on
which it is applied. If the force F is uniformly distributed over a large area,
then:

If the force varies in direction and intensity over the area, then traction should
be defined only at a point considered as an infinitesimal area. Using the
imaginary cubic point, then traction is formally defined as the force (F) per
unit area applied in a particular direction at a given location on the cube.

Stress
Assuming mechanical equilibrium (law of motion 3, reaction principle), if a
traction is applied to the external surface of a body, then it sets up internal
tractions within the body. The same equation as for external traction defines the
internal traction; hence there are equal but opposite tractions on both sides of
the contact cubic point. This pair of balanced tractions is the stress. Stress is
applied on any point of a body like spring tension: there are equal and opposite
forces on the other (hidden) three faces of the cubic point. Since stress
comprises both the action and the reaction, stress is defined as a pair of equal
and opposite forces acting on the unit area. Stress is transmitted through the
material by the interatomic force field. The body is then in a state of stress.

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Dimension
Stress, as pressure, includes the physical dimensions of force and those of the
area on which the force is applied:

Stress components
With an infinitely small cube, body forces are negligible compared to surface
forces. Hence, body forces are in equilibrium with themselves and one can
consider the state of stress at a point (the infinitely small cube) within the
body. Since stress cannot be defined without specifying the plane upon which
the stress acts, both the direction of the force and the orientation of the faces of
the cube must be considered.
Forces (and traction vectors) on each of a cube faces are resolved into three
orthogonal components, one normal to the face (the normal force) and two
parallel to the face (the shear forces). Like forces, stresses acting on an
infinitely small cube whose faces are unit areas can be resolved into three

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normal stresses perpendicular to the faces and three times two shear stresses
parallel to each face, each shear stress parallel to each of the coordinate
directions contained in the face plane.
- The normal stress, transmitted perpendicular to a surface, is given the symbol
σ.
- The shear stresses, transmitted parallel to a surface, have the symbol τ.

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These are written so that components in a row are those acting on a plane and
components in a column are those acting in the same direction. Using the
symbol σ instead of τ yields the following ordered array:

The stress tensor, which represents all possible traction vectors at a point with
no dependence on the plane (unit normal vector) orientation, fully describes the
state of stress at a point. More specifically, it is a symmetric tensor since the six
off-diagonal components are interchangeable; it is a second order tensor since
it is associated with two directions. Accordingly, stress components have 2
subscripts, where indifferently and independently i = 1, 2, 3 and j = 1, 2, 3. The
subscripts i and j refer to the row and column location of the element,
respectively. The diagonal components are the normal stresses and the off-
diagonal components are the shear stresses. σi=j σi≠j
If the elemental cube does not rotate (i.e. postulating equilibrium condition and
no body forces), shear stresses on mutually perpendicular planes of the cube
are equal: three of the shear components counteract and balance the other
three, i.e. the rotating moments about each of the axes, the torques read across
the diagonal of the square matrix, are zero:

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Principal stresses
Even if six independent stress magnitudes and unconstrained orientations
simplify the stress tensor, the formulation remains somewhat cumbersome to
employ. Fortunately, this situation can be considerably simplified. It is always
possible, at any point in a homogeneous stress field, to find three mutually
orthogonal planes intersecting at the point and oriented such that the shear
stresses vanish to zero. Thus:

Terminology for states of stress

Some special stress states are:

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Mean stress
The mean stress σ or hydrostatic stress component p (also called dynamic
pressure) is the arithmetic average of the principal stresses:

The mean stress thus specifies the average level of normal stress acting on all
potential fault planes, which governs the frictional resistance on fault planes to
slip. Otherwise, the mean stress may only produce a change in volume, either
to reduce it if the mean stress is compressive, or to expand it if it is tensile.

Effects of pore fluid pressure

Fluid pressure
Fluid pressure refers to the pressure in, and exerted by fluids contained in the
cracks and pores of granular materials. Rocks within depths of a few kilometres
of the crust commonly have either intergranular or fracture porosity along
which a column of fluids exists up to the surface. If the fluid reservoir is in
static equilibrium, the fluid pressure P f is closely approximated by the
equation:

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hydrostatic pressure. Overpressured fluids are attributed to one or more of

several mechanisms such as compaction of sediments, diagenetic /
metamorphic dehydration of minerals, artesian circulation. Tectonic stresses in
active areas may also increase the interstitial water pressure. Carbon dioxyde
released from the mantle or other sources is a common abnormally pressured
fluid.

Effective stress
The total stress field in a porous solid can be specified in terms of normal and
shear components across plane surfaces. The solid and its interstitial fluid
combined exert the total normal stresses and the total shear components. The
tensor of total stress (equation 1) expresses the total stress field:

because normal (hydrostatic) pressures are equal in all directions and shear
stresses of the pore fluids are neglected since they are much smaller than those
in the solid. Therefore, a diagonal, isotropic matrix (a square matrix that has
non-zero elements only along the main diagonal) represents the fluid pressure:

The effective stress is the difference between the total stress and the fluid
pressure : P f = p

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Changes in confining pressure

Stress field
When surface forces are applied to a body, the resulting stresses within this
body generally vary in direction and intensity from point to point. The stress
field is the distribution of all the stresses at all points throughout the body. The
stress field can be portrayed either as a set of stress ellipsoids, or as their stress
axes, or as stress trajectories. The stress field is homogeneous if both the
normal and shear components are the same at all points, in magnitude and
orientation. Otherwise, and commonly in geology, it is heterogeneous. The
relative uniformity of stress orientation and relative magnitudes is striking and
permits mapping of regional stress fields.

Two or more stress fields of different origin may be superimposed to give a

combined stress field.
The sources of the stress are manifold and, consequently, stress is unevenly
distributed within the Earth's lithosphere. Its magnitudes are highest within, or
next to, the regions where causative forces are exerted. Stress gradually
diminishes away due to the elastic and creeping strain energy consumed in
deforming rocks. The stress gradient is the rate at which stress increases in a
particular direction, for instance depth with a normal hydrostatic gradient = 10
MPa/km and an overburden gradient = 23 MPa/km. Curves of iso-stress-
magnitude (stress contours) illustrate such gradients. In the lithosphere, stresses

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result from forces that are transmitted from point to point. Knowing the
magnitude and the orientation of principal stresses at any point allows
calculating the normal and shear components on any plane passing through this
point.

References

Jaeger, J. C., Cook, N. G. W. & Zimmerman, R. W. 2007. Fundamentals of rock

mechanics. Fourth edition. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. 475 p.
Means, W. D. 1976. Stress and strain. Basic concepts of continuum mechanics for
geologists. Springer Verlag, New York. 339 p.
Oertel, G. F. M. 1996. Stress and deformation: a handbook on tensors in geology.
Oxford University Press, New York. 292 p.

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