General Geology Important Information on Faults As the plates move, they cause a
ID: 803086 • Letter: G
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General Geology
Important Information on Faults As the plates move, they cause a great deal of permanent strain to the rocks near the plate boundaries. For example, when two continents collide, their leading edges crumple. When one continent is pulled apart, it is thinned and stretched first. If two plates slide sideways past each other, they may pull on each other, causing the rocks to be wrenched sideways. Forces that Cause Rock Deformation In general,there are threetypes of fores acting on Earth's crust . Compression is a squeezing force that shortens and thickens the crust. . Tension is a stretching force that lengthens and thins the crust. Shear is a wrenching force that doesn't change the thickness of the crust but simply causes two adjacent blocks to slide laterally past each other. We generally show the three types of forces with arrows as shown below. Shear Tension Compression Rocks often respond to these forces by breaking and then sliding past each other along the broken surfaces, which geologists call faults. It is this breaking and sliding that causes most earthquakes. Faults That Form Under Shear Forces When the crust is subjected to shear forces, the rocks on either side of any fault will slide sideways past each other. They can do so in two different ways, resulting in two different types of faults (Diagrams modified from Fig. 08.10.bl in Reynolds, Exploring Geology, 23d edition): Right lateral fault: If you stand on one side of the fault, the rocks on the other side of the fault slide sideways to the right. Note that, no matter which side of the fault you would stand on, the other side would always slide to the right.Explanation / Answer
The faults are come into existance when stress overcome the limit of strength og the rock or that particular material. It is followed by Hook's law and thus it release techtonic energy while exceeding the limit of stress. Thus it leads with a rupture or relative displacement between the two blocks. There are several types of faults that exist in case of techtonic study of earth crust (as it is described already in above pictures) and thus have different characterstics and radiation patern while releasing stress.
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