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Geology Reviewer 2
Geology Reviewer 2
Geology Reviewer 2
Dip
Also since even ductile rocks can eventually fracture 3. Overturned fold--a fold in which the axial plane is
under high stress, rocks may fold up to a certain tilted and beds may dip in same direction on both
point then fracture to form a fault. sides of the axial plane
is a down-arched series of strata with beds in non-plunging folds contact lines separating
on all sides dipping in towards the center formations shown in the surface view are parallel
throughout 360 degrees--an eroded surface and straight---the contact lines in one of the two
indicates the rocks become progressively profile views are horizontal and parallel---the
older away from the center of the structure contacts in the other profile view are arched up or
down--in plunging folds contact lines in the surface
view are curved---contact lines in one of the profile
views dip in the direction of plunge---contact lines in
the other profile view are arched up or down--the
surface contact lines between formations are
convexed (closed) in the direction of plunge for the
anticline and concave (open) in the direction of
plunge for the syncline
MONOCLINES
SYMMETRICAL, ASYMMETRICAL AND OVERTURNED FOLDS hanging over a lower portion before movement is
called the hanging wall and that on the bottom, the
footwall
OVERTURNED FOLDS
RECUMBENT FOLDS
TYPES OF VERTICAL/DIP - SLIP FAULTS
Movement along strike-slip faults is horizontal. fractures in the rocks in which there is no
appreciable displacement along the crack--often
is that type with horizontal movement along the joints occur in 2 sets of cracks intersecting between
cracked rock--movement can be left lateral or right 45-90 degrees dividing the rocks into rectangular
lateral--best example of right lateral strike slip fault blocks
is the San Andreas fault in California--looking down
the fault line in the front plan view, the right side of Causes of joints
the fault appears to have moved towards you if a
right lateral fault or left side moves towards you if a 1. Unloading or sheeting effects
left lateral fault
2. Stresses in a cooling magma
STRIKE-SLIP FAULTS
can cause columnar jointing in which there
are 6-sided fractures comprising the jointing
pattern. (eg. Devil’s Tower, Wyoming)
STEPS IN THE FORMATION OF AN ANGULAR In the figure, deposition resumes. Maybe the water
UNCONFORMITY rose or maybe the land dropped -- you can't tell
which from what is shown in these pictures. New
sediments shown in red at the top of the picture
bury the old erosion surface and the strata below it.
The valleys are filled first and may contain clasts (the
red spots) of the older rocks. Soon even the hills are
Deposit a series of conformable beds. Following the under water and the deposits are flatlying.
Law of SUPERPOSITION OF STRATA the layer on the
ANGULAR UNCONFORMITY Oceanic crust is made of relatively dense rock called
basalt. Continental crust is made of lower density
Nonconformity rocks, such as andesite and granite.
igneous or metamorphic rock form, next a non-
deposition or massive erosion event occurs, then a
series of sedimentary rocks form The outermost layers of the Earth can be divided by their
physical properties into lithosphere and asthenosphere.
Thus, oceanic lithosphere is created at mid-ocean Geologists believe that areas of intense geologic
ridges and consumed at subduction zones, areas activity, indicated by earthquakes, volcanoes, and/or
where the lithosphere sinks into the asthenosphere. mountain building, mark the boundaries between
lithospheric plates.
Earthquakes are generated in the rigid plate as it is
subducted into the mantle. The dip of the plate The distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes, and
under the continent accounts for the distribution of mountain ranges define 7 large plates and 20
the earthquakes. Magma generated along the top of smaller plates. The Nazca and Juan de Fuca Plates
the sinking slab rises to the surface to form consist of only oceanic lithosphere. The Pacific Plate
stratovolcanoes. is mostly oceanic lithosphere only a small slice of
continental lithosphere in southern California and
PLATE TECTONICS Baja Mexico. Most of the other plates consist of
both oceanic and continental lithosphere.
The new hypotheses of the early 1960s explained
several puzzling sets of observations. All that Types of Plate Motion
remained was a synthesis of these hypotheses.
The ways that plates interact depend on their
The synthesis began in 1965 when Tuzo Wilson relative motion and whether oceanic or continental
introduced the term plate for the broken pieces of crust is at the edge of the lithospheric plate. Plates
the Earth's lithosphere. move away from, toward, or slide past each other.
Geologists call these divergent, convergent, and
In 1967, Jason Morgan proposed that the Earth's
transform plate boundaries.
surface consists of 12 rigid plates that move relative
to each other. Two months later, Xavier Le Pichon
published a synthesis showing the location and type
of plate boundaries and their direction of
movement.
At a transform plate boundary, plates slide past each Such volcanoes are typically strung out in chains
other. The San Andreas fault in California is an called island arcs. As the name implies, volcanic
example of a transform plate boundary, where the island arcs, which closely parallel the trenches, are
Pacific Plate slides past the North American Plate. generally curved.
Transform boundaries