Joints and Shear Fractures

Joint: A natural fracture that forms by tensile loading-

walls of fracture move apart slightly as joint develops
 Joints/Fractures: Geometry
Planar and often smooth; no appreciable displacement. Most
abundant structural element in crust. What do the surfaces
look like?

Moscow
Kremlin -
Bell Tower
of Ivan the
Great.
Fractured in
1737 due to
uneven
cooling
Plumose structure: A
subtle roughness on
surface of some joints;
resembles imprint of a
feather. Due to
inhomogeneity of rock.
Joints: commonly
elliptical
Close-up views of
hackles in plumose
structure. Plumose
structure is more
prominent away from
origin due to stress
concentrations at
crack tips
 Joints/Fractures: Kinematics

ribs are arrest lines- opening is

not instantaneous, but rhythmic,
like splitting wood
Griffith cracks: preexisting microcracks and flaws
in a rock

The largest properly oriented Griffith crack

propagates to form a through-going crack
Joint arrays
Three competing mechanisms that contribute to joint
formation during uplift and erosion:

(1) Contraction during cooling

(2) Poisson effect- e.g., rock expands in vertical

direction and contracts in horizontal direction during
unloading

(3) Membrane effect- expansion due to increase in

curvature of layer
Cooling joints: form by thermal contraction
Exfoliation joints: Form by unloading of bedrock through erosion.
They form parallel to topography
Exfoliation joints: Form by unloading of bedrock through erosion.
They form parallel to topography
Tectonic joints: Form by tectonic stresses as opposed to
stresses induced by topography.
 Joint analysis

Significance: determine orientation of tectonic

stresses
Significance for Engineering
Planes of weakness!
Significance: Geologic
Hazards
Joints and Geomorphology
Shear fracture: A fracture that grows in
association with a component of shear
 Shear fractures

en echelon tension gashes

-form ~45 degrees from plane of max. shear stress
-preexisting vein material rotates while new vein material grows
 What is it?

What are these structures? en echelon tension gashes

What is the sense-of-shear? right lateral or top-to-the-right
Describe how the veins grew. from center to tips during rotation
Determining the sense of shear
Vein filling during crack opening
Significance: Economic Geology
Alteration/Mineralization along
fractures; Veins preserve dilational
separation
Joints/Fractures: “no appreciable
displacement”
 Important terminology/concepts

Joints- what are they?

Joint ornamentation- plumose structure
Joint kinematics: opening, sliding, scissoring
Griffith cracks and tensile crack formation
Tectonic joints
Exfoliation/unloading joints
Cooling joints
Joint arrays and joint analysis
Shear fracture formation
- en echelon tension gashes
- sense-of-shear indicators
Significance
- tectonics
- engineering
- economic geology
- hazards