One of the most universal of these later structures is to be seen in
the divisional planes, usually vertical or highly inclined, by which
rocks are split into quadrangular or irregularly shaped blocks. To
these planes the name of joints has been given. They are of prime
importance from an industrial point of view, seeing that the art of
quarrying consists mainly in detecting and making proper use of them.
Their abundance in all kinds of rocks, from those of recent date up to
those of the highest antiquity, affords a remarkable testimony to the
strains which the terrestrial crust has suffered. They have arisen
sometimes from tension, such as that caused by contraction from the
drying and consolidation of an aqueous sediment or from the cooling of
a molten mass; sometimes from torsion during movements of the crust.
Although the stratified rocks were originally deposited in a more or
less nearly horizontal position on the floor of the sea, where now
visible on the dry land they are seldom found to have retained their
flatness. On the contrary, they are seen to have been generally tilted
up at various angles, sometimes even placed on end (crop, dip,
strike). When a sufficiently large area of ground is examined, the
inclination into which the strata have been thrown may be observed not
to continue far in the same direction, but to turn over to the
opposite or another quarter. It can then be seen that in reality the
rocks have been thrown into undulations. From the lowest and flattest
arches where the departure from horizontality may be only trifling,
every step may be followed up to intense curvature, where the strata
have been compressed and plicated as if they had been piles of soft
carpets (anticline, syncline, monocline, geo-anticline, geo-syncline,
isoclinal, plication, curvature, quaquaversal). It has further
happened abundantly all over the surface of the globe that relief from
internal strain in the crust has been obtained by fracture, and the
consequent subsidence or elevation of one or both sides of the
fissure. The differential movement between the two sides may be
scarcely perceptible in the feeblest dislocation, but in the extreme
cases it may amount to many thousand feet (fault, fissure,
dislocation, hade, slickensides). The great faults in a country are
among its most important structural features, and as they not
infrequently continue to be lines of weakness in the crust along which
sudden slipping may from time to time take place, they become the
lines of origin of earthquakes. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906,
already cited, affords a memorable illustration of this connexion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account