Structural Geology

Appalachian Mountains
Pennsylvania
It has long been evident to geologists that great forces operate in Earth’s crust
These forces apparently involve bending, breaking, and overturning rock layers
Stress is a force acting upon a solid.
Strain is a change in shape or volume
of a solid as a result of stress

Differential
stress
Solid rock may respond to stress in two ways:

Ductile Behavior (bending, stretching)

Brittle Behavior (breaking)

Behavior determined by several factors:

Rate of strain, confining pressure, rock composition,
temperature, presence of water
Joints
Faulting

Hanging-wall and footwall

 Types of Faults

Normal Fault Reverse Fault

Strike-Slip Fault
Normal Fault

Strike-Slip Fault

Reverse Fault
Horst and Graben
 Da Basics
• Tensional stress = normal fault
• Compressive stress = reverse fault
• Shear stress = strike slip fault
 Geometry of a fold

Anticline
Syncline

Plunging Anticline
Open
(symmetrical)

Isoclinal

Asymmetrical

Overturned

Recumbent
Evolution of a
fold into a
reverse fault
 Age relationships of folded beds

An eroded anticline will have older beds in the middle

An eroded syncline will have younger beds in middle
How do geologists
map complex 3-D
structures with
only surface data?

Strike and Dip

Making a Geologic Map
 Measuring
orientation of
rock outcrops

Erosion removes portions of a fold

What are the age
relationships
of these rocks?

Strike and Dip symbols on maps

Plunging folds revealed by topography

“Law of V’s” - Plunging anticline points in direction of plunge

Plunging syncline opens in direction of plunge

Geologic
Map
Pay attention to age
relationships and
strike and dip symbols
Describe the structures and stress
Draw the geologic map
Three General Types of Mountains
• Fold and Thrust Belts
• Fault Block Mountains
• Volcanic Mountains
Fold and Thrust Mountains
Fault Block
Volcanic Mountains
So…how would you figure out the Appalachians?
A Low-Angle Reverse Fault - Thrust Fault

Fig. 15.16
Keystone
Thrust west of
Las Vegas

Fig. 15.17B
 What is the geologic
structure of Michigan?
 Geologic
Map of U.S.
Ordovician Late
Carboniferous

Cretaceous

Western U.S. U.S. Orogenies

Permian Eastern U.S.

Rocky Mts, CO. Plat., Laramide Appalachians

time
Sierra Mts. – Tectonic Rise Tertiary Isostatic rise
Cenozoic
Sevier
Cretaceous
Pangea Nevadan
Jurassic
Sonoman Mesozoic
Breakup Triassic
Alleghenian
Pennsylvanian
Pangea Antler
Assembly Late Devonian
Acadian
Taconic Devonian
Paleozoic
Ordovician

Rodinia
Breakup Grenville
Proterozoic
Hudsonian
Rodinia Proterozoic Precambrian
Assembly Kenoran
Archean
Isostasy - equilibrium
Mountain Building
Appalachian Fold and
Thrust Belt