Forces in Earth’s Crust

Build Background Knowledge

Have you ever experienced an
earthquake? If so, describe the event. If
not, what have you learned from
television reports, movies, newspaper
and magazine articles, etc.?
 The Big Questions
● How does stress change the
Earth’s crust?
● How do faults form?
 My Planet Diary

How long do you think it took Mount

Everest to form? Hundreds of years?
Thousands? Millions? Explain.

Forces inside Earth act very slowly, so

Mount Everest likely took millions of
years to form.
 Forces in Earth’s Crust
• The movement of Earth’s plates creates
enormous forces that squeeze or pull the
rock in the crust as if it were a candy bar.
• These forces are examples of stress.
• Stress is a force that acts on rock to change
its shape or volume.
• Because stress is a force, it adds energy to
the rock.
• The energy is stored in the rock until the rock
changes shape or breaks.
 Types of Stress
Three different kinds of stress can
occur in the crust:
Tension
Compression
Shearing
3 types of stress
• Tension
• Pulls on the crust, stretching rock so that it becomes thinner in the
middle. “The effect of tension on rock is somewhat like pulling apart a
piece of warm bubble gum.” Occurs where two plates are moving apart.
• Compression
• Squeezes rock until it folds or breaks. “One plate pushing against another
can compress rock like a giant trash compactor.”
• Shearing
• Pushes a mass of rock in two opposite. Shearing can cause rock to break
and slip apart or to change its shape.
 Tension
Tension pulls on the crust, stretching rock
so that it becomes thinner in the middle.
What type of landform results from
tension?
Valley
 Compression
Compression squeezes rock until it folds
or breaks.
What type of landform results from
compression?
Mountain
 Shearing
Shearing pushes a mass of rock in two
opposite directions.
How does shearing affect rock in Earth’s
crust?
Shearing can cause rock to break
and slip apart.
 Figure 1: Stress in Earth’s Crust
Look at the pair of arrows in the second
diagram. These arrows show how tension
affects rock.
 Figure 1: Stress in Earth’s Crust
Draw a pair of arrows on the third
diagram to show how compression affects
rock.
 Figure 1: Stress in Earth’s Crust
Draw a pair of arrows on the bottom
diagram to show how shearing acts on
rock.
 Assess Your Understanding
I get it! Now I know that stress changes
Earth’s crust by changing the
_____________________.

shape and volume of rock

 Kinds of Faults

Most faults occur along plate boundaries,

where the forces of plate motion push or
pull the crust so much that the crust
breaks.
There are three main types of faults:
Normal Faults
Reverse Faults
Strike-Slip Faults
 Normal Faults
• Tension in Earth’s crust pulls rock apart,
causing normal faults.
• In a normal fault, the fault is at an angle, so
one block of rock lies above the fault while
the other block lies below the fault.
• The block of rock that sits over the fault is
called the hanging wall.
• The rock that lies under the fault is called the
footwall.
 Normal Faults
• When movement occurs along a
normal fault, the hanging wall slips
downward.
• Normal faults occur where plates
diverge, or pull apart.
 Normal Faults
Normal faults occur where plates
diverge, or pull apart.
 Reverse Faults
• Compression in Earth’s crust pushes rock
together, causing reverse faults.
• A reverse fault has the same structure as
a normal fault, but the blocks move in the
opposite direction.
 Reverse Faults
• The rock forming the hanging wall of a
reverse fault slides up and over the
footwall.
• Movement along reverse faults produced
part of the northern Rocky Mountains in
the western United States and Canada.
 Reverse Faults
Reverse faults occur where plates
are compressed, or pushed together.
 Strike-Slip Faults
• In places where plates move past each
other, shearing creates strike-slip faults.
• In a strike-slip fault, the rocks on either
side of the fault slip past each other
sideways, with little up or down motion.
 Strike-Slip Faults
• A strike-slip fault that forms the boundary
between two plates is called a transform
boundary.
• The San Andreas fault in California is an
example of a strike-slip fault that is a
transform boundary.
 Strike-Slip Faults
Rocks on either side of a strike-slip
fault slip past each other.
 Faults

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x
Fi8pVLpJjE
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

Figure 2: Faults

Normal Fault: In a normal fault, the hanging wall ________

__________ relative to the footwall.

slips
down
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

Figure 2: Faults

Reverse Fault: In a reverse fault, the hanging wall

moves __________ relative to the footwall.

up
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

Apply It!
The low angle of a thrust fault allows rock in the hanging wall
to be pushed great distances. For example, over millions of
years, rock along the Lewis thrust fault in Glacier National
Park has moved 80 kilometers.
1. Identify: Based on the arrows showing
fault movements in the diagram, a
thrust fault is a type of (normal
fault, reverse fault).
reverse fault
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

Apply It!
2. Challenge: Why might the type of rock in the hanging
wall of the Lewis thrust fault be different from the type
of rock in the footwall?
Because the hanging wall now sits above rock that might
be different from the original rock 80 km away.
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

1a. Review When enough stress builds up in brittle rock, the

rock breaks, causing a __________ to form.
fault
b. Infer: A geologist sees a fault along which blocks of rock in
the footwall have moved higher relative to blocks of rock in
the hanging wall. What type of fault is this?
a normal fault
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

Got it?
I get it! Now I know that faults form
when____________.
enough stress builds up in rock to break it
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review
Understanding Main Ideas

Diagram A
a. Type of fault:
reverse
b. Stress force:
compression
c. Movement along fault:
vertical
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review
Understanding Main Ideas

Diagram B
a. Type of fault:
normal
b. Stress force:
tension
c. Movement along fault:
vertical
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review
Understanding Main Ideas

Diagram C
a. Type of fault:
strike-slip
b. Stress force:
shearing
c. Movement along fault:
horizontal
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review
Evidence of Movement Along Faults
Fault 1:
strike-slip
road shows horizontal movement; not vertical
Fault 2:
reverse fault
dry riverbed
Fault 3:
normal fault
waterfall
 The Big Question
● How does plate movement
create new landforms?
 Changing Earth’s Surface
Over millions of years, the forces of plate
movement can change a flat plain into ________
such as anticlines and synclines, folded
mountains, fault-block mountains, and plateaus.
 Anticline
An __________ is a fold in rock that bends
________ into an arch. Anticlines are
found in places where compression forces
have folded the crust.
 Syncline
A ___________ is a fold in rock that bends
________ to form a valley. Synclines are
also found in places where compression
forces have folded the crust.
 Figure 4
page 125
● Label the anticline and the syncline.
● Draw arrows to show the direction in
which forces act to compress the crust.
 Folded Mountains
The collision of two plates can cause
__________ and ________ of the
crust over a wide area.
World’s Largest Mountain Ranges created from the
folding of Earth’s crust: Himalayas in Asia and the
Alps in Europe
 Fault-block Mountains
● Fault-block mountains form when
_________ in Earth’s crust causes
faulting.
● The hanging wall of _____ normal
faults slip downward due to tension.
● e block between now stands above the
surrounding __________.
 Fault-block Mountains
The Great Basin region contains
many mountains separated by
broad valleys, or basins.
 Figure 5: Tension and Normal Faults
page 126
Label the hanging wall and the two
footwalls in diagram A.
a. footwall
b. hanging wall
c. __________
 Figure 5: Tension and Normal Faults

In diagram B, draw the new position of the

hanging wall after movement occurs.
Figure 5: Tension and Normal Faults

Describe what happens.

________ causes the footwalls to move
outward. The hanging wall then slips
down along the faults, forming the
___________.
 Plateaus
A _________ is a large area of flat land
that is elevated high above sea level. The
same forces that raise mountains can also
uplift, or raise, plateaus.
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review
Assess Your Understanding
2a. Normal faults often occur when two plates (come
together, pull apart).
_____________
b. Look at the diagram that accompanies the photograph in
Figure 5. Does the block of rock in the middle move up as a
result of movement along the normal faults? Explain.
_______, the middle block does not move up. Rather, the two
blocks forming the hanging walls move __________.
 Forces in Earth’s Crust Review

Got It?
I get it! Now I know that plate movements create new
features by_______________________.
Acting over __________ of years to change flat plains into
anticlines, synclines, folded mountains, fault-block mountains,
valleys, and plateaus.