Common Minerals and RocksCrosby, William O. (William Otis)
Science
Common Minerals and Rocks
Crosby, William O. (William Otis)
Geology -- Study and teaching
Dip faults cause a lateral shift or displacement of the outcrops, as
shown in Fig. 32, which represents a plan or map-view of the strata
traversed by the fault _b b_, the down throw being on the right and the
up throw on the left. The dip of the strata is indicated by the small
arrows and the accompanying figures; and it will be observed on tracing
the outcrop of any stratum, _a a_, across the fault that it is shifted
to the right. If the throw of the fault were reversed, the displacement
of the outcrop would be reversed, also. Strike faults are of two kinds,
according as they incline in the same direction as the strata, or in the
contrary direction. The effect of the first kind is to conceal some of
the beds, as shown in Fig. 33, in which beds 5 and 6 do not outcrop, but
we pass on the surface abruptly from 4 to 7. The apparent thickness of
the section is thus less than the real thickness. When the fault
inclines against the strata, on the other hand (Fig. 34), the outcrops
of certain strata are repeated on the surface; and a number of parallel
faults of this kind, a step fault, will, like a series of closed folds
(Fig. 25), cause the apparent thickness of the section to greatly exceed
the real thickness. Repetition of the strata by faulting is
distinguished from repetition by folding by being in the same instead of
the reverse order.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.—Strike fault, concealing strata.]
[Illustration: Fig. 34.—Strike fault, repeating strata.]
Folds and faults are really closely related. In the former the strata
are disturbed and displaced by bending; in the latter by breaking and
slipping; and the displacement which is accomplished by a fold may
gradually change to a fracture and slip. This relation is especially
noticeable with monoclinal folds (Fig. 23), in which the tendency to
shear or break the beds is often very marked.
Important faults are rarely simple, well-defined fractures; but, in
consequence of the enormous friction, the rocks are usually more or less
broken and crushed, sometimes for a breadth of many feet or yards. The
fragments of the various beds are then strung along the fault in the
direction of the slipping, and this circumstance has been made use of in
tracing the continuation of faulted beds of coal. In other cases the
direction of the slip is plainly indicated by the bending of the broken
ends of the strata (Fig. 35), and the beds are sometimes turned up at a
high angle or even overturned in this way.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.—Section of beds distorted by a
fault.]
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