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Geologic Structures
• Geologic structures are dynamically-produced
patterns or arrangements of rock or sediment
that result from, and give information about,
forces within the Earth
– Structural geology is the study of the shapes,
arrangement, and interrelationships of rock
Geologic Structure units and the forces that cause them

Stress and Strain in the Earth’s Lithosphere Stress and Strain

• Stress is force per unit area Compressive stress
– The three basic types of stress are results in rocks being
compressive, tensional and shear shortened or flattened.
• Strain is a change in size or shape, or both
in response to stress Tensional stress results
– Geologic structures are indicative of the in a stretching or extension
type of stress and its rate of application, as and breaking of material.
well the physical properties of the rocks or Because rocks are very
sediments weak when pulled apart,
fractures and faults are
common structures.

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Stress and Strain How Rocks Respond to Stress

When stresses act parallel to a plane,
shear stress is produced.
A shear stress results in a shear strain
parallel to the direction of the stresses.
Shear stresses occur along actively
moving faults.
• Rocks behave as elastic, ductile or brittle
materials depending on:
– amount and rate of stress application
– type of rock
– temperature and pressure
• If deformed materials return to original
shape after stress removal, they are
behaving elastically.
• Most rocks behave in an elastic way at very
low stresses.

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How Rocks Respond to Stress How Rocks Respond to Stress

However, once the stress exceeds the Rocks exposed to elevated pressure and
elastic limit of a rock, it deforms temperature behave in a ductile manner and
permanently develop a planar texture, or foliation, due to the
alignment of minerals.
- ductile deformation involves bending
Ductile behavior results in rocks that are
plastically permanently deformed mainly by folding or
- brittle deformation involves bending of rock layers.
fracturing Rocks typically exhibit brittle behavior at or near
Earth’s surface, where temperatures and
pressure are low.
Faults and joints are examples of structures that
form by brittle behavior of the crust.
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Folded sedimentary rock

layers exposed at
Lulworth Cove, Dorset,
England

Deformed sedimentary beds exposed in a road cut near Palmdale,

California. Squeezing due to movement along the San Andreas
fault caused the sedimentary layers to be contorted into folds and
broken by smaller faults. 9 10

Types of Geologic Structures Basic Fold Geometry

Folds are bends or wavelike features in
layered rock.
• The axial plane divides a fold into its two limbs
– The surface trace of an axial plane is called the
hinge line (or axis) of the fold
Anticlines are upward-arching folds with
the oldest rocks in the center of the fold.
Synclines are downward-arching folds
with the youngest rocks in the center of
the fold.

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Types of Folds Types of Folds

1. Plunging folds are folds in which the
hinge line is not horizontal 2. Open folds have limbs
Where surfaces have been levelled by erosion, that dip gently and the
plunging folds form V- or horseshoe-shaped angle between the limbs is
patterns of exposed rock layers (beds). large.
- The more open the
fold, the less it has been
strained by shortening.

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Types of Folds Types of Folds

4. Overturned fold – the axial plane is inclined to
such a degree that fold limbs dip in the same
3. Isoclinal folds have direction.
parallel limbs. 5. Recumbent folds - are overturned to an extent
- Implies even larger that the limbs are essentially horizontal.
shortening strain or
shear strain

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Types of Folds Types of Folds

6. Structural Domes are structures in which the
beds dip away from a central point, and the
oldest rocks are found in the center or core of the
structure.
- Sometimes called doubly plunging anticlines.
7. Structural Basins are structures in
which the beds dip toward a central
point, and the youngest rock are exposed
in the center of the structure.
- Sometimes called doubly plunging synclines

Domes near Casper, Wyoming

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Fractures in Rock Fractures in Rock

Joint : a fracture or Faults - fractures in bedrock along which
crack in bedrock movement has occurred
where essentially no - Considered “active” if movement has
displacement occurs occurred along them within the last 11,000
- joint set : where joints years
are oriented approximately
parallel to one another

Vertical joints in sedimentary rock at

Moab, Utah, formed in response to
tectonic uplift of the region.
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Types of Faults Types of Faults

Categorized by type of movement in terms of Common Type of Dip-slip Faults
direction of slippage :
Normal faults - the hanging-wall block
1. Dip-slip Faults - the movement is up or down
moved down relative to the footwall block.
parallel to the dip of the inclined fault surface. The
side of the fault above the inclined fault surface is Reverse faults - the hanging-wall block
called the hanging wall, whereas the side below moved up relative to the footwall block
the fault is called the footwall.

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Types of Faults Types of Faults

A normal fault results in extension or
lengthening of the crust.

Graben - Fault blocks, bounded by normal

faults, that drop down.
Horsts - Fault blocks, bounded by normal
faults, that are uplifted.
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Types of Faults Types of Faults

Horizontal compressive stresses cause
2. Strike-slip faults have movement that is
reverse faults. Reverse faults tend to predominantly horizontal and parallel to the strike of
shorten the crust. the fault plane.
A thrust fault is a reverse fault in
which the dip of the fault plane is at a
low angle ( 30°) or even horizontal

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Types of Faults Types of Faults

3. Oblique-slip faults have movement
with both vertical and horizontal
components

Right-lateral San Andreas Fault

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Geologic Map Geologic Map

A geologic map shows the distribution of
geologic features, including different kinds
of rocks and faults.
The geology is represented by colors, lines,
and special symbols unique to geologic
maps.
Geologic units are named and defined by the
geologists who made the geologic map,
based on their observations of the kinds of
rocks and their investigations of the age of
the rocks.
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Geologic Map
Letter Symbols
The most common division of time used in
letter symbols on geologic maps is the
Period.
A capital letter representing one of the four
Periods: J (Jurassic - 195 to 141 million
years ago), K (Cretaceous - 141 to 65
million years ago), T (Tertiary - 65 to 2
million years ago), or Q (Quaternary - 2
million years ago until today).
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Geologic Map
Contact Lines
3. gb would be the symbol
for gabbro (a dark-
colored igneous rock of
unknown age
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Geologic Map
4. Lava from a volcano flows
over the landscape, and when
the lava hardens into rock, the
place where the lava-rock rests
on the rocks underneath is
a depositional contact.
It is shown on the geologic map
as a thin line
5. When different geologic
units have been moved next to
one another after they were
formed, the contact is a fault
contact, which is shown on the
map by a thick line
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Geologic Map
1. Kjm would be the
symbol for the Joaquin Miller
sandstone formed in the
Cretaceous (K) Period
2. Ks would be the symbol
for an unnamed unit of
shale formed in the same
the K Period
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Geologic Map
The place where two different geologic
units are found next to each other is
called a contact, and that is represented
by different kinds of lines on the
geologic map.
The two main types of contacts shown on
most geologic maps are depositional
contacts and faults.
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Geologic Map
Geologic units can also be
bent and warped by the
same forces into rounded
wavelike shapes called folds.
A line that follows the crest
or trough of the fold is called
the fold axis. This is marked
on a geologic map with a
line a little thicker than a
depositional contact, but
thinner than a fault.
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Geologic Map Geologic Map

Solid, dashed, or dotted lines Strike and Dip
All thicknesses of lines are also modified by Strike is the compass
being solid, dashed, or dotted. direction of a line formed by
the intersection of an inclined
Those places where the line plane with a horizontal plane.
is precisely located it is
The strike line shows that
shown as solid, but where
horizontal direction in the
it is uncertain, it is
beds.
dashed. The shorter the
dash, the more uncertain
the location.

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Geologic Map
The short line is called
the dip line, and shows
which way the bed is
tilted. The number is
called the dip, and shows
how much the bed is
tilted, in degrees, from
flat.
The higher the number, the steeper the tilting
of the bed, all the way up to 90 degrees if the bed is Beds strike north and dip 30o to
tilted all the way onto its side. the west

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Geologic Map Geologic Map

Map Key
All geologic maps come with a table called a
map key. In the map key, all the colors and
symbols are shown and explained.

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