DIASTROPHISM –

WARPING,FOLDING, AND
FAULTING
FORCES OF PRESSURE THAT
SHAPE THE EARTH’S SURFACE

Dens Lister M. Mahilum

 All processes that move,
elevate or build up portions of
the earth's crust come under
diastrophism.
Figure 1. Layers of the Earth.
 Crust contains major and minor
plates.

 These plates have 3 types of

motions.
Figure 2. Types of plates.
 Diastrophism includes
epeirogenic and orogenic
processes.
Epeirogenic process – Origin of
Land.
Orogenic process – Origin of
Mountains.
 WARPING
• Large portions of the Earth’s crust are
subjected to uplift or depression.
• Uplift possibly due to tectonic as well as
erosion processes.
• Depression usually due to glacial weight
added to crust
– Isostasy: rebound of the Earth’s crust as
glacial weight is removed through melting and
global warming
COLORADO PLATEAU: WARPING

•Compression
forces over last 20
million years
uplifted Colorado
Plateau
DOMES AND BASINS: WARPING
ISOSTASY: POST-GLACIAL CRUST
REBOUND
 FORCES THAT SHAPE THE
EARTH’S SURFACE

• There are three main types of forces of

pressure that work to shape (and re-shape)
the Earth’s surface:
– Compression forces (‘squeezing’)
– Extension (or tension) forces (‘stretching’)
– Shearing forces (‘ripping’)
FORCES
 COMPRESSION FORCES: FOLDS
• Folding
– A fold is formed by the bending or buckling of rock layers,
as a result of great force and pressure over extremely long
periods of geologic time.

• Syncline: Rock layers bend downward in the folding

process to form a trough-like physical feature called
a syncline. This physical feature often shows itself in
the form of valleys and lakes.

• Anticline: Rock layers buckle upward during folding

to form an arch-like structure called an anticline.
This physical features often shows itself in the form
of mountains or ridges.
 Structure of Folds

force force
FOLDS RESPOND TO TECTONICS
A. No compression forces and no folds
B. Compression forces create
somewhat symmetrical upfolds
(anticlines) and downfolds
(synclines)
C. Continued compression pushes
symmetrical upfold over into an
‘overturned fold’
D. Compression forces cause a fault to
form and pushes one limb of the
‘overturned fold’ onto the other limb
E. A Recumbent fold along a fault has
developed
Anticline and Syncline
OVERTURNED FOLD
Recumbent Fold
FOLDED STRATA ALONG SAN
ANDREAS FAULT – HWY 14
 FOLDED MOUNTAINS –
COMPRESSION FORCES
• Folded Mountains
form as the edges of two
adjacent rock layers are
pushed together
– The layers buckle like a
wrinkled rug
– Mountains form from
multiple parallel synclines
and anticlines
• Under great pressure
and steady force, rocks
can actually bend rather
than breaking.
 FOLDED MOUNTAINS ERODE
OVER TIME

Initial
uplift

Erosion
features
FAULTING – COMPRESSION, EXTENSION
AND SHEARING FORCES
• When enormous stresses build and push large intact
rock masses beyond their yield limit, faulting of the
surface is likely to occur.
• A fault is a fracture in the rock layers along which
movement occurs
 Measuring Displacement along a
Fault
• Some faults have vertical displacement,
while others have horizontal displacement
• The measure of displacement is referred
to as either “dip-slip” or “strike-slip”.
– Strike: The compass direction of a line of
strata
– Dip: The angle in degrees between a
horizontal surface and an inclined surface –
measured as perpendicular to strike
Dip versus Strike
 UNDERSTANDING FAULT
TERMINOLOGY
• Faults are identified by their patterns of
displacement:
– Vertical (dip slip)
• The movement is along the line of the dip
– Horizontal (strike slip)
• The movement is along the line of the strike
Dip-slip versus Strike-Slip
 TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF
DIP SLIP FAULTS
• Fault scarp: steep cliff that represents
edge of vertically displaced rock
– Can be 100s of meters in height
– Can extend 100s of kilometers in straight lines
– Sharp rise in terrain and steep slopes
 Fault scarp

Fault scarp
Identifying Dip Slip Fault Structures
 NORMAL FAULTS: DIP SLIP
FAULTS
• Normal faults are the result of tensional (or
extensional) forces acting to pull apart the
surface.
• The hanging wall drops relative to the
footwall.
• Normal faults can occur across vast areas
due to lithospheric stretching.
– Basin and Range in Western USA
 NORMAL FAULT: DIP SLIP

Tension forces
Footwall Tension forces

Hanging wall
 HORSTS AND GRABENS

Tension forces

Tension forces

Mountains and Basins created by a series of parallel Normal

Faults – The Basin and Range Province in Western North
America is a topographic example of normal faulting:
Grabens: downdropped basins
Horsts: Uplifted mountains and ranges
 Basin and Range
Western USA exhibits
‘horst and graben’
structures due to
extensional tectonics.
The Western edge of the
Basin and Range
includes the Sierra
Nevada in California.
The Eastern edge of the
Basin and Range
includes the Wasatch
Range in Utah
Faults across Basin Range Province

TENSION FORCES ARE PULLING THIS AREA APART

 REVERSE FAULT – DIP SLIP
• Reverse faults are the result of
compression forces
• The footwall drops relative to the hanging
wall
Reverse Fault – Dip Slip

Hanging wall

Footwall
 REVERSE THRUST FAULT
• Reverse thrust faults
are the result of very
low angle faults, Hanging
wall
pushing the hanging
Footwall
wall up and over the
foot wall Compression forces
 BLIND REVERSE THRUST FAULT
• A blind reverse
thrust fault does not
extend to the
surface – we only
know of their
existence because
of earthquakes and Hanging wall

surface deformation footwall

• Hanging wall lifts up

and over footwall
 TRANSFORM FAULTS:
SHEARING FORCES

• Transform faults can be found at plate

boundaries as one plate slides horizontally
past another.
– Strike-slip faults
• Most transform faults are found on the
ocean floor as part of the active offset
along divergent plate boundaries.
TRANSFORM FAULT – SEA
FLOOR SPREADING
 TRANSFORM FAULTS: PLATE
BOUNDARIES
• At plate boundaries, when two tectonic
plates grind past each other, there is
usually no volcanism or mountain building
occurring.
• One of the largest transform faults in the
world is the San Andreas Fault
– Separating the North American Plate from the
Pacific Plate in southern California.
San Andreas Fault in the
Carrizo Plain
View is looking south. Fault
is in the center of the folded
ridge area