The stress () acting on a plane is the force per unit area of the plane
(F/area). We will see in Chapter 3 that when referring to the stress at a
point in a body, a more complicated definition is needed. Deformation refers to changes in shape, position, or orientation of a body resulting from the application of a differential stress (i.e., a state in which the magnitude of stress is not the same in all directions). More specifically, deformation consists of three components (Figure 1.5): (1) a rotation, which is the pivoting of a body around a fixed axis, (2) a translation, which is a change in the position of a body, and (3) a strain, which is a distortion or change in shape of a body (Chapter 3). To visualize a strain, consider the test crash of a car that is rapidly approaching a brick wall (Figure 1.6a). In Figure 1.6b, the car and the wall have attempted to occupy the same space at the same time, with variable success. Since the structural integrity of the car is less than that of the wall, the push between car and wall squashed the car, thereby resulting in a strain. In homogeneous strain, the strain exhibited at one point in the body is the same as the strain at all other points in the body. Cars are designed so that strain is heterogeneous, meaning that the strain is not equal throughout the body, and the passengers are protected from some of the impact. Bagaimana tentang translasi dan rotasi? Komponen deformasi ini sedikit lebih susah untuk dikenali, tapi itu memang terjadi. Contohnya,.struktur batuan yang telah bergerak sepanjang bidang sesar. For example, a rigid body of rock that has moved along a fault plane clearly has been translated relative to the opposing side of the fault (Figure 1.7a), and a fault block in which strata are inclined relative to horizontal strata on the opposing wall of the fault has clearly been rotated (Figure 1.7b). Such rotations occur at all scales, as emphasized by work in paleomagnetism, which demonstrates that continental blocks have been rotated around a vertical axis as a consequence of shear along major strike-slip faults and plate boundaries. In order to describe deformation, it is necessary to define a reference frame. The reference frame used in structural geology is loosely called the undeformed state. We cant know whether a rock body has been moved or distorted unless we know where it originally was and what its original shape was. Ideally, if we know both the original and final positions of an array of points in a body of rock, we can describe a deformation with mathematical precision by defining a coordinate transformation. For example, in Figure 1.8a, four points (labeled m, n, o, and p) define a may be able to describe strainsay, because of the presence of deformed fossilsbut we have no absolute record of translations or rotations. Then we may talk about relative displacement and relative rotation. A flat-lying bed of Paleozoic limestone in the Midcontinent region of the United States was at one time below sea level and, because of plate motion, it was formed at a different latitude than today, but we cant immediately characterize these movements.1 If, however, we see a fault offset a limestone bed by 2 meters, we say that one side of the fault has moved 2 m relative to the other side.