Structural Geology UWI
Structural Geology UWI
Structural Geology UWI
Tectonic Forces
# Structural geology: The branch of geology concerned with the shapes, arrangement, and
interrelationships of bedrock units and the forces that cause them
Deformation When rocks are subjected to stresses (forces) greater than their own
internal strength
Caused by Stress and resulting in Strain
Stress is the force applied divided by the area (the continuum replacement for force)
Tensional stress
“Pull-apart” stress
Thins and stretches crust
Associated with rifting
In geology we never see stress -- We only see the results of stress as it deforms materials
Strain: The change in size (volume) or shape, or both, while an object is undergoing stress
Strain occurs when stresses exceed rock strength
Rock strength determine the resistance of the material against the applied stress
Strained rocks deform by folding, flowing, or fracturing
The layered nature of the rock The layered structure results from the deposition of
sediments in sheets or beds which have large areal
extent compared to their thickness
Similar to present day sand deposition on lakes or oceans
(b) the angle of dip, which is the angle that the plane
makes with a horizontal plane
When a plane become inclined, it should have a intersection line with the horizontal plane
or the Earth surface
Strike (trend)
Strike is the direction of the line of intersection
between the plane and a horizontal plane
The compass direction of the line produced by the intersection
with respect to magnetic north
Expressed as a angle relative to N
N37°E or simply 37°
N12°W or simply 348°
Dip (inclination)
Dip is perpendicular to strike and is the vertical angle of
the plane
The angle of inclination of the surface of a rock
unit or fault measured from a horizontal plane
Includes both an angle of inclination and a
direction toward which the rock is inclined
82°SE
17°SW
Rocks are bent by crustal deformation into a series of wave-like undulations called folds
Most folds result from compressional stresses which shorten and thicken the crust
They are ranging in their scale from a few inches up to several miles
PARTS OF FOLDS
1. Bucking
When rocks are subjected to a lateral force they
buckle and undergo folding
2. Bending
When rocks respond to changes in shape outside the layer, such as
those brought about by loading of overburden, they undergo bending
CLASSIFICATION OF FOLDS
I- GENETIC CLASSIFICATION
(a) Antiform: (b) Synform:
It is a convex-upward fold whose limbs It is a concave-upward fold whose limbs dip
dip away from each other toward each other
Box folds
A fold in which the broad, flat top of an anticline or
the broad, flat bottom of a syncline is bordered by
steeply dipping limbs.
IV- BASED UPON THE ATTITUDE OF AXIS
Basins –
Downwarped circular or slightly elongated structure
3-dimensional syncline resembling upright cereal
bowl
Youngest rocks are found near the center, oldest
rocks on the flanks
Boudinage
(ii) Membrane effect
During exhumation, rock layers move away from centre of Earth and radius of
curvature increases
Exfoliation joints: Form by unloading of bedrock through erosion.
(iii) Thermal contraction e.g. during cooling of lava, gives columnar joints
Most commonly expressed as vertical Columnar Jointing
(iv) Bending of brittle rock layers
During folding or faulting, local stresses
may be tensile
Tectonic joints
Types of joints
Tectonic joints are formed during deformation
episodes
Whenever the differential stress is high enough to induce tensile failure of the rock
1. Strike-slip Faults
The fault surface is usually near vertical and the
footwall moves either left or right or laterally
A fault where the movement is predominantly horizontal and parallel to the strike of the fault
Horst:
When a block bounded by normal faults is uplifted
b. Reverse fault:
When the hanging-wall block has moved
upward relative to the footwall block
The eroded surface of metamorphic or plutonic igneous rocks are buried by younger
sedimentary layers