Folds, Faults, and

Mountains
 Fold and Thrust Mountains
• Enormous mountain ranges form when
plates converge.
• Contorted rocks show the power of
plate tectonics.
• Formerly horizontal layers are twisted,
bent, or broken.
• Some folded rocks are pushed over on
their sides, or even upside down.

Evidence of Lateral Compression

Convergent Plate Boundaries
and Folding

Continent-Ocean Continent-Continent
collision forms collision forms
Continental Arc: Folded Mountain Belt:Alps,
Andes Cascades. Himalayans, Appalachians
 Compression, tension and shear forces stress
the rocks, causing them to strain i.e. “give”

Units of Stress Force / Area

Convergent Divergent Transform

 Relation
ship
Between
Stress
and
Strain
Rubber Band

Strain can be a change in shape (a deformation) due to an applied stress

Relationship
Between
Stress and
Strain at low
Temps and
Pressure or
Sudden Stress

Ruler, Pencil
Relationship
Between
Stress and
Strain under
high Temps
or Pressure

Chewing Gum
 Strike and Dip

Map Symbols: Strike shown as long line, dip

as short line. Note the angle of dip shown: 45o

Strike intersection w horizontal, dip perpendicular, angle from horizontal down toward surface
 Note highest point

Foam Strata

Source: Breck P. Kent

Adjacent Anticline and Syncline

 Folded Rocks (Dorset, England)
Center has overturned area

Foam strata
Older
Overturned
Area
Younger

Lucky we have ways of

recognizing right side up
What are they?
Source: Tom Bean
Younger Older
Folded Rock Before Erosion
Folded Rock After Erosion

Eroded Anticline, older rocks in center. Syncline is opposite.

Topography may be opposite of Structure
Anticline Before/After Erosion

Notice center rock oldest

Topography may be opposite of Structure
Syncline Before/After Erosion

Notice center rock youngest

Various Folds
Various Folds (cont'd)
Various Folds (cont'd)
 Various Folds (cont'd)

Axis

Axial plane near axis should be close to horizontal

 Plunging Folds
Demo: Plastic box, water, paper folds

Up
End Down
End

Nose of anticline points direction of plunge, syncline nose in opposite direction

3-D: Dome and Basin
 Interpreting Folds
• Determine if center rocks are older or
younger than flanks: fossils, right side up
clues (graded bedding and mudcracks)
• Are limbs parallel or “Nosed”?
• Determine limb dips from measurements,
stream V’s. Strike and Dip
• Use nose rules for anticlines and synclines
 Fractures

•
• Fractures
• - Joints: fractures with no relative
movement
• - Faults: fractures with relative
movement

Source: Martin G. Miller/Visuals Unlimited

Demo: Cardboard Models

Dip-Slip
Faults
Normal Fault: Hanging Wall Down

Hanging wall overhangs

the fault plane Foot wall under the
fault plane

Hanging wall is down

Source: John S. Shelton

Especially common in divergent margins

 Dip Slip Faults

What phase of magma fractionation would result in the This

Younger
placement of this ore body?
Which formed first, the ore body or the fault?
guy is
rich
What common mineral is mostly likely in the ore body?

Reverse

Miners pay geologists to

Normal find their lost orebody
One friend earned
enough to buy a house

This poor guy is out of luck

http://pangea.stanford.edu/~laurent/english/research/Slickensides.gif

Fracture Zones and Slickensides

a) Visible displacement of rocks

b) Pulverized rock and “Slickensides”
c) Key beds cut out by faulting reappear elsewhere.
 Types of Faults - 2

• Strike-slip faults
1) Example: San Andreas
Transform fault
2) Distinctive landforms (linear
valleys, chains of lakes, sag
ponds, topographic saddles)
3) Fresh pulverized rock.
Transform fault through granite:
Arkose sandstone
4) Evidence of Shear stress
Horizontal Movement Along
Strike-Slip Fault
Faults & Plate Tectonics

Divergence
Convergence

Transform
 Plate tectonics and faulting

• Normal faults: mid-ocean ridges and

continental rifts are the same thing.

• Divergent Margins
– Surface rock is pulled apart
– Hanging wall drops down
Horst and Graben Formation
Graben in
Iceland

Source: Simon Fraser/Science Photo Library/Photo Researchers, Inc.

 Plate tectonics and faulting
• Shallow dipping Reverse Fault called a
“Thrust Fault”.

• Reverse and thrust faults: convergent

plate boundaries

• Hanging Wall is pushed up.

Lewis Thrust Fault
 Lewis Thrust Fault (cont'd)

Same layer
 Lewis Thrust Fault (cont'd)

Source: Breck P. Kent

PreCambrian Limestone over

Cretaceous Shales
 Plate tectonics and faulting

• c) Strike-slip faults: Transform Boundaries

San
Andreas
Fault
Types and processes of mountain-
building (Orogenesis)

1. Volcanic mountains
2. Fold-and-thrust mountains
3. Fault-block mountains
4. Upwarped mountains
 Types of Mountains

• 2. Fold-and-thrust mountains

– Formed by Continent-Continent Collisions

Appalachian
Mountain
System
 Fault-block mountains

• Rift Valleys, Mid Ocean Ridges

• Basin and Range province ???

• Normal Fault Blocks as in East Africa
• Divergent Margins?
• Paradigm Shifts
 Origin of the Basin and Range
Southwestern North America
Looks different

We will discuss Buoyant subduction later

 Upwarped mountains

a) Gently bent without much deformation

b) Ascent of buoyant mantle material
c) Far from plate boundaries
d) Adirondack Mountains: Uplift of deep
PreCambrian Igneous and Metamorphic
rocks
The Adirondack Mountains
of Northern New York

Source: Clyde H. Smith/Allstock/Tony Stone Images

 Anticlines and Oil

Early USA
petroleum
exploration, e.g.
Pennsylvania
anticlines
Faults and Oil