Lecture 11

Classification of folds
 
 
Introduction.
Folds are the resulting structures when rocks deform in a ductile manner, bending,
instead of fracturing to form faults.
 
Anatomy of a fold. A look at a single layered fold profile.
 

A fold has a point at which the curvature is the greatest. The line connecting these
points is called the hinge line or fold axis.The sides of a fold are called limbs. The
limbs intersect at the tightest part of the fold, the hinge. The point of no curvature
near the midpoint of the limb is called the inflection point and the plane which
contains all the hinge lines for each fold plane is the axial plane or axial surface.
The hinge line and the axial plane form the most basic geometrical elements to the
folded structure.
 
Classification of folds.
Folds are classified on the basis of several properties of geometrical elements:
 
 Thickness of folded beds
 Tightness of folding
 Fold Orientation
 Fold facing
 Fold shape in three dimension
 
1. Thickness of folded beds
 
There is a classic style grouping in which folds are divided into parallel
( concentric) or similar curves. A concentrically curved fold is one that retain its
individual thickness. Usually, Thickly-bedded, brittle unit folds tend to have this
characteristic. The center of the curvature remains constantly the same, but with he
radii of curvatures increase from near the center onward. With the increase in radii,
the curves flatten. Thus concentric fold would die upward and downward if the
thickness of the strata were very great.
A similar fold has equal angles between the limbs. The curvature of the limbs is
often very slight, and they lie parallel to one another. Thinly-bedded, clay-rich
units have a tendency to develop a foliation parallel to the axial plane and
form similar folds.
 

This characterization is quantified into a classification by Ramsay (picture from

text book). This classification is using a method called dip isogon analysis. Dip
isogon connect points on the upper and lower boundary of a folded layer where the
layers have the same relative dips to a reference frame. A parallel fold has dip
isogons perpendicular to a bedding throughout the fold while a similar fold has dip
isogons parallel to each other.
 
Chevron folds have plane limbs and V-shaped closure. They satisfy criteria for
both similar and parallel folds except near the hinge area.     

 
chevron folds
2. Tightness of folding
Folds can be classified according to their degree of tightness/openness. Tightness
of folds can be described as open (limbs dip gently), tight (limbs dip steeply)
or isoclinal (limbs are parallel).
The tightness of a fold is measured  by its interlimb angle, which is defined as the
angle between the planes targential to the folded surface at the inflection point.
 
(4)The angle between two consecutive limbs is called interlimb angle
The size of the interlimb angle allows the fold to be classified in the following
scheme:
 fold classification by interlimb angle
isoclinal 0-10
tight 10-60
open 60-120
gentle 120-180
 
3. Fold Orientation
a. the axial plane orientation.
The orientation of the axial plane relative to the horizontal together with the
orientation of fold limbs allow subdivision into upright (axial plane vertical, limbs
symmetric), overturned (axial plane moderately inclined, both the limbs of a fold
dip towards the same direction), or recumbent (axial plane and fold axis are nearly
horizontal, one limb inverted).
b. orientation of fold axis.
A fold with tilted fold axis is called plunging fold while a fold with horizontal fold
axis is an upright fold.

 a plunging fold.
c. Orientation of fold axis and orientation of axial plane
A fold has nearly horizontal axial plane is a recumbent fold while a fold with a
near vertical fold axis is a reclined fold. The fold axis is nearly perpendicular to the
strike of the axial plane.

 
d. Orientation of limbs
An overturned fold is a fold that has both the limbs dip towards the same direction.
In such a fold, one limb appears normal while the other limb appears to be
overturned towards the other. 

 
4. Fold shape in three dimension
This classification mainly distinguishes between cylindrical folds and non
cylindrical folds.
a. cylindrical folds
A cylindrically folded surface is a curved surface which shape can be generated by
taking a straight line and moving it while keeping it parallel to itself in space. it is
characterized by a straight hinge line.

b.non-cylindrical folds
non cylindrical folds are folds that cannot be generated by translating a straight
line. In other word, a non cylindrical fold doesn't have a straight hinge line. Domes
and basins are examples of folds of non cylindrical simply because their shape
cannot be described by the simple translation of a straight line.
 
5. Fold facing
Antiforms have their hinge line at the top while folds which hinge line is at the
bottom are called synforms. antiforms and synforms seldom occur as separate
individuals. Usually, there are connected, lying side by side in alternation, uniting
by convergence of several axes to form one, or dying out by the merging of an axis
with the slope of a stratum.
a. Upward facing folds
Antiforms and synforms must not be confused with anticlines and synclines. A
syncline is a fold which beds young away from the core and its vice versa for
syncline. In these both cases, the younging direction points or faces upward so they
are called upward facing folds.
b. downward facing folds.
Basically, when we have opposite younging direction direction for both antiform
and synform, the folds are called downward facing folds. In downward facing
antiform which also called antiformal syncline, progressively  younger beds occur
towards the center of core of the fold while the younging occurs away from the
core for downward facing synform or synformal syncline.
                                        antiform

                                    synform

Anticline Fold (Ant-hill shape, oldest layer in the middle)

 

Syncline Fold (Sink-shape, youngest layer in the middle)