Module 12: Stress and Strain

Objective:

This module aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. Define stress, its causes, and types.
2. Define strain, its causes, and types.

Stress is defined as the force per unit area that a rock receives. Strain or deformation occurs
when stress causes a material to change in shape.
Four types of stresses that acts on a material:
 Confining stress -when a deep buried rock cannot move and deform due to the entire weight
that is pushing it down.
 Compression -the most common stress in a convergent plate boundary. This squeezes rocks
together causing fractures or folds.
 Tension -major stress in a divergent plate boundary. This happens when rocks are pulled
apart, it either lengthen or break apart.
 Shear -common in transform plate boundary. This happens when rocks are moving parallel
to one another.
Responses to stress:
 Elastic deformation -when the rock returns to its original shape after the stress is removed.
 Plastic deformation -when the rock does not return to its original shape after the stress is
removed.
 Fracture -when the rock breaks.
Factors that determine whether the rock is ductile or brittle are;
 Composition -minerals composition of a rock determines its brittleness or ductility.
Presence of water makes a rock or mineral more ductile and less brittle.
 Temperature -Rocks become softer (more ductile) at higher temperature. Rocks at mantle
and core temperatures are ductile and will not fracture under the stresses that occur deep
within the earth. The crust, and to some extent the lithosphere, are cold enough to fracture if
the stress is high enough.

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 Lithostatic pressure—The deeper in the earth a rock is, the higher the lithostatic pressure it
is subjected to. High lithostatic pressure reduces the possibility of fracture because the high
pressure closes fractures before they can form or spread. The high lithostatic pressures of the
earth’s sub-lithospheric mantle and solid inner core, along with the high temperatures, are
why there are no earthquakes deep in the earth.
 Strain rate—The faster a rock is being strained, the greater its chance of fracturing. Even
brittle rocks and minerals, such as quartz, or a layer of cold basalt at the earth’s surface, can
undergo ductile deformation if the strain rate is slow enough.

References:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-geology/chapter/outcome-stress-and-strain/

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