Structural Geology Structural Geology

M, W, F study of the “architecture of the crust”

10:30 am ….by examination of deformed rocks
Pamela Jansma
Office hours: DEFORMATION: changes in location, orientation, shape, volume
Tuesday: 9:00am-10:30am …results from stresses that exceed rock strength…
TA:
Brett Floyd
(Stephen James, Richard Styron)

Lab: W 12:30pm-4:30pm
This will be divided into two sections, each of 2 hours duration.
The four hours will allow for field trips on occasion.
Office: Ozark 113 or Ozark 27B
Telephone: 575-4748 ductile (bends) brittle (breaks)
e-mail: pjansma@uark.edu same material (fence) deforms in different ways
website: http://comp.uark.edu/~pjansma from: Davis and Reynolds, 1996

rocks, like the fence, will deform in different ways, depending upon
why study structural geology?
the properties of the rock and the nature of the applied stress

• structures are conduits for fluids (water, gas, oil)

and control subsurface fluid transport
(petroleum exploration; hydrology)
• active faults are where earthquakes occur
(natural hazards and risk analysis)
• faults and veins are sites of ore deposits
(mineral exploration)
• structures create zones of weakness in rocks
folds (ductile) faults (brittle) (buildings and infrastructure)

although engineering and structural geology are similar, deformed rock leads geologists to questions…such as….
there is one important difference:
What is the structure?
engineering:
What is the geometry?

Did materials change shape during deformation?

What was the sequence of steps that led to deformed rock?

apply stress observe what happens
When and how long was the deformation?
structural geology:

? What were the temperatures and pressures?

infer what happened

and original shape observe deformed object

modified from Allmendinger: http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/RWA/GS_326/GEOL326.html#aa40

1
three classifications of structures
structures can be of various scales
1) contacts--separate rock bodies
• normal depositional contacts and unconformities global: entire world ~104-105 km
• intrusive contacts regional or provincial: physiographic province
• fault contacts or mountain belt (103-104 km)
2) primary structures--develop during formation of rock body macroscopic or map scale: bigger than an area you can see
• in sediment before it becomes sedimentary rock standing in one place (10-102 km) (e.g. 7.5’ quad)
…cross beds, ripple marks, etc. mesoscopic: outcrop or hand sample (10-5-10-1 km) (cm-m)
• in lava or magma before they become igneous rock
…ropy texture in basalt, vesicles, etc. microscopic: visible with optical microscope (10-8-10-6 km)

3) secondary structures--develop after formation of rock submicroscopic: TEM, SEM, etc. (< 10-8 km)
• joints and veins
• faults
• folds secondary are
• foliations and lineations theme of this class
• shear zones

an example of the effect of scale another example of the effect of scale

Mandelbrot asked “How long is the coast of Britain?”

answer depends on the scale one uses to measure

land
ocean
the longer the measuring stick,
the shorter the length
ruler a non-penetrative penetrative
total length

ruler b total length • in map on left, faults seem to be widely spaced (non-penetrative)
• in map on right, faults seem to be closely spaced (penetrative)
ruler c total length

fractal dimension, D: L(G) ~ G1-D

penetrative vs. non-penetrative frequently is scale dependent
G is length of measuring stick
L(G) is length of coastline derived from measuring stick, G
from: Davis and Reynolds, 1996
modified from Allmendinger: http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/RWA/GS_326/GEOL326.html#aa40

scale also affects what can be observed: geologic structures of various scales:

veins

folds
global (Topex/Poseidon) regional (Landsat TM)

from: http://topex.ucsd.edu/marine_grav/explore_grav.html

2
 macroscopic (map scale) mesoscopic
(outcrop)

Keystone thrust Waterpocket fold

(dark over light)

left from: Robert Varga, http://www.wooster.edu/geology/GEO313/Images/

right from: http://dax.geo.arizona.edu/earthscope/frontpage/images/ut18_lg.jpg all from: J. Waldron, http://www.stmarys.ca/academic/science/geology/structural/

mesoscopic microscopic:
(hand sample)
foliation

sigmoidal structures
(shear zones)
from: Keck geology slide set, Paul Karabinos from: J. Waldron, http://www.stmarys.ca/academic/science/geology/structural/
site: http://www.science.ubc.ca/~eoswr/slidesets/keck/

dynamic recrystallization
folds in gypsum (formation of foliation)

from: J. Waldron, http://www.stmarys.ca/academic/science/geology/structural/folds2.html

from Allmendinger: http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/RWA/GS_326/GEOL326.html#aa40

microscopic and mesoscopic: now that we have seen numerous structures….

how do we proceed to determine their origin?

• OBSERVATION (DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS):

define geometries of rocks in 3 dimensions
direct: mapping, drill holes, laboratory
indirect: seismic, gravity, magnetics, etc.

• KINEMATIC ANALYSIS: measure or infer movements..

…translation, rotation and
strain (deformation history)

vein • DYNAMIC ANALYSIS: infer stress and rock strength

from deformed object
(most interpretive and sometimes most fun part)

image from: J. Waldron, http://www.stmarys.ca/academic/science/geology/structural/

animation from Allmendinger: http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/RWA/GS_326/GEOL326.html#aa40

3
structural analysis is the combination of descriptive, kinematic descriptive analysis:
and dynamic analysis)
…geometry and symmetry foundation is geologic mapping…
and stresses responsible for deformation …3D geometry of rock bodies and contacts between them
make inventory of orientations of
example: birds on wire commonly face the same direction • contacts
• rock units
• why is one bird facing opposite direction? • primary structures
• different flight paths? different destinations? • secondary structures
• what “forces” cause alignment?
• facing warmth of the sun? construct geologic cross sections
• facing upwind to land at lower airspeed? …interpretations of geology projected into subsurface
• facing upwind to keep feathers smooth?

from: Davis and Reynolds, 1996

construction of cross-sections is one primary objective of laboratory

to describe orientation, use strike and dip (measure with compass)

2 perpendicular lines that together define the plane the two limbs of this fold have the same strike but different dips
N
tilted layer
β strike
horizontal plane β = strike angle
inclined plane strike measured relative to north
in horizontal plane
dip
strike
strike in and out of plane of page
α
α = dip
vertical layers
angle
dip measured relative to horizontal
along line of strike cross-section
dip
dip

use orientations from strike and dip measurements for cross sections kinematic analysis: 4 possible types of movements
time 1 time 2
translation
(rigid body)

how were layers tilted?

rotation
kinematic analysis (rigid body)

distortion; strain
(shape changes)

volume change
(dilation, contraction)

from: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/warmup/aquifer/jpghtml/crossec.html

4
looking at it another way: dynamic analysis
• interprets forces, stresses, mechanics that yield structures

dilation translation • describes orientation and magnitude of stress and response of

material

importance of stress and strain

rotation distortion
(strain) stress is the force applied and strain is the deformation that results

• stress is instantaneous and only exists when applied

• strain is permanent change in a rock
kinematic analysis says nothing about
stresses responsible for deformation
from: Davis and Reynolds, 1996

What stress is responsible for formation of geologic structures? and in the past….

primarily plate tectonics

• interactions of plates along their boundaries

current Earth
subduction
(convergence)
spreading
(divergence)
transform
(strike-slip)

from: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html

other stresses: gravity, fluid-pressure, density inversion

from: http://topex.ucsd.edu/marine_grav/explore_grav.html

putting it all together: the pizza example kinematic analysis:

a 9 inch pepperoni pizza is removed from the refrigerator… • translations of pepperoni slices 3.7 inches and 5.1 inches
descriptive analysis: from depressions
• rotations of 5° clockwise and 15° counterclockwise
2 pepperoni-sized circular depressions
(in NE and NW)

2 pepperoni slices overlapped other

pepperoni slices at low angle
(thrust)
(in SW and SE)

another observation: the box containing the pepperoni pizza

was not damaged in any way
from: Davis and Reynolds, 1996 from: Davis and Reynolds, 1996

5
dynamic analysis:

author’s interpretation:
• after preparing pizzas, the manufacturer did not stack the boxes
horizontally (maybe because this damages boxes),
but stacked boxes vertically
• vertical stacking when pizzas were warm resulted in gravity-induced
sliding of pepperoni slices along the low-viscosity sauce
• pepperoni slices stopped sliding when they encountered frictional
resistance caused by another pepperoni slice

do not know rate of translation or magnitude of stresses required

…can do quantitative models to determine….