Faults Footwall And Hanging Wall

A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall.

Faults footwall and hanging wall.

The fault plane is where the action is. The hanging wall moves up and over the footwall. Fault plane is called the hanging wall or headwall. The fault strike is the direction of the line of intersection between the fault plane and earth s surface.

The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep greater than 45. The line it makes on the earth s surface is the fault trace. The block below is called the footwall. In our models a rigid block and horizontal base act as the footwall of the master normal fault and a layer of wet homogeneous clay represents the hanging wall strata.

The american heritage student science dictionary second edition. The terminology of normal and reverse comes from coal mining in england where normal faults are the most common. Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. Placement distribution affect hanging wall defor mation table 1.

Thrust faults with a very low angle of dip and a very large total displacement are called overthrusts or detachments. Mcclay 1990a mcclay et al 1991. Reverse dip slip faults result from horizontal compressional forces caused by a shortening or contraction of earth s crust. The main components of a fault are 1 the fault plane 2 the fault trace 3 the hanging wall and 4 the footwall.

Where the fault plane is sloping as with normal and reverse faults. The sloping surface of the footwall block is either planar or has a single concave upward or convex upward bend. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping. Most faults broken places are essentially inclined planes like this.

Thrust faults are reverse faults that dip less than 45. This is quite easy really. Mainly because the names hanging wall and footwall were named by miners who weren t trying to be cute. This fault pattern arises because the hanging wall growth faults nucleate in the sediment volume above the point at which the detachment surface flattens out causing an apparent migration of the active growth faults towards the bounding fault as the hanging wall block is displaced away from the footwall listric fault mechanism.

These are often found in intensely deformed. In a non vertical fault where the fault plane dips the footwall is the section of the fault that lies under the fault while the hanging wall lies over the fault the names come about from the. See more at fault. Quite often the ore that a mine.

The hanging wall block would then be hanging overhead. The upthrown side of the fault is the side on which the movement has been up relative to the other side.