STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY LABORATORY

EXERCISES 9-10. SOME GEOMETRIC PRINCIPLES IN

STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY:
APPARENT DIP AND THREE POINT PROBLEM

Objective: The set of exercises included in this section are intended to acquaint the students to some
geometric principles that are useful for constructing and interpreting geologic maps and cross
sections. The exercises are further designed to enhance the students’ ability to visualize and analyze
3-D disposition of planes and lines for solving structural geology problems.

Background information

Apparent dip
In the previous section, it was noted that the orientation of any plane (e.g., bedding plane,
fault plane, joint plane, etc) may be measured in terms of strike and dip. As a review, the true dip of
a plane is its inclination from the imagined horizontal measured in a vertical plane that is
perpendicular to the strike line. In relation to this, inclination measured from the imagined horizontal
and oblique to or parallel to the strike is the apparent dip as shown in the Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Relationship between the apparent dip and the true dip with respect to the strike of the
plane. Note that the apparent dip is always smaller or equal to the true dip.

The relation between the true and apparent dip is particularly critical if cross sections are
constructed on vertical planes that are not perpendicular to the strike of the bedded unit. Dips that
appear on a map must therefore be corrected before they can be used to portray inclined strata on
the section. The apparent dip of a any planar feature can be calculated by the simple mathematical
equation:
 tanα=tanδsinβ

where: α is the apparent dip on a vertical plane

δ is the true dip
β is the angle between the strike of the planar feature in question and the plane on which the
apparent dip is measured.

There are other ways to measure the apparent dip. These include the use charts or
nomograms as shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2. The Woolnough diagram for determining the apparent dip. The x-axis refers to the true dip
and the y-axis refers to the directional angle (i.e., the angle between the dip direction of
the planar feature and the vertical plane on which the apparent dip is measured.
Figure 3. Chart for converting true dip to apparent dip when constructing geologic cross sections. If
the true dip is 43o, the apparent dip on a vertical section making a 35o angle with the strike
of the bedding plane would be 28o.
Name: __________________ Student No.:_______________

EXERCISE 4. SOME GEOMETRIC PRINCIPLES IN

STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY: APPARENT DIPS

Materials needed: Rulers, cross section paper, triangles, calculator, protractor, coloured
pencils, field data.

Your tasks:

Part 1. This exercise requires you to draw cross sections along lines AB and AD. Use either the
mathematical equation or the charts (and compare the results) to correct the dips shown on the map.
The topography in this map is flat, so your “topographic profile” will be straight, horizontal line. For
these cross sections, do not apply vertical exaggeration. Next, draw a cross section along line A-B,
but make the vertical scale twice the horizontal scale. Your result will show why geologists normally
do not exaggerate vertical scales. ( 20 pts)