Geology: The Science of the Earth's CrustMiller, William J. (William John)
Philosophy
Geology: The Science of the Earth's Crust
Miller, William J. (William John)
Geology
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--An outcrop of stratified crystalline limestone
(or marble) exhibiting two small sharp folds--a syncline on the
left and an anticline on the right--near Lenox, Mass, These folds
developed during the great mountain-making disturbance at the end of
the Ordovician period fully 20,000,000 years ago. (After Dale, U. S.
Geological Survey.)]
From the standpoint of our consideration of slow earth-crust movements,
it is important to bear in mind that lateral pressure in the zone of
flowage has not only notably deformed rocks, but that, as a result
of the buckling forces, given rock masses have, in many cases, been
notably shifted downward or upward--mainly upward--from their original
positions. Folded strata carrying shells of sea animals are commonly
found thousands of feet above sea level in many of the great mountain
ranges of the world. During the process of folding on a large scale the
crust of the earth is very appreciably shortened at right angles to
the direction of applied pressure, due to squeezing or bending of the
strata. In the case of the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania it has
been estimated that such shortening amounts to about twenty-six miles
or, in other words, that the strata originally spread out horizontally
across an area whose width was about 100 miles have been squeezed or
folded into an area whose width is twenty-six miles less.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Structure section showing the profile of the
mountains and relations of rocks below the surface near Livingston,
Montana. The strata were crowded together until they bent into great
sharply defined folds at the time of the Rocky Mountain Revolution
several million years ago. Then the rocks broke along the fault
fracture and the mass on the right was shoved over upon the mass on the
left. (After U. S. Geological Survey.)]
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