Normal Fault Hanging Wall And Footwall

In a normal fault the hanging wall moves downward relative to the footwall.

Normal fault hanging wall and footwall.

The hanging wall moves up relative to the foot wall. Its strike and its dip. Formed by compressional stress rocks are pushed towards each other thrust fault. An upthrown block between two normal faults dipping away from each other is a horst.

The hanging wall slides down relative to the footwall. Any fault plane can be completely described with two measurements. Block position under the hanging wall. When the fault plane is vertical there is no hanging wall or footwall.

Generally speaking the hanging wall and footwall of a fault are in contact with each other. In some kinds of mineral deposits there is ore directly in the fault so. If the hanging wall drops relative to the footwall you have a normal fault. They bound many of the mountain ranges of the world and many of the rift valleys found along spreading margins.

A downthrown block between two normal faults dipping towards each other is a graben. Formed by tensional stress rocks are stretched away from each other reverse fault. Low angle normal faults with regional tectonic significance may be designated detachment faults. Also miners will mine ore not hanging walls or footwalls.

The strike is the direction of the fault. Normal faults occur in areas undergoing extension stretching. A type of fault in which the hanging wall moves down relative to the footwall and the fault surface dips steeply commonly from 50 o to 90 o groups of normal faults can produce horst and graben topography or a series of relatively high and low standing fault blocks as seen in areas where the crust is rifting or being pulled apart by plate tectonic activity. Normal dip slip faults are produced by vertical compression as earth s crust lengthens.

Other articles where normal fault is discussed. Normal faults form in response to horizontal tensional stresses that stretch or elongate the rocks. True in a reverse fault the hanging wall block moves up relative to the footwall block. If you imagine undoing the motion of a normal fault you will undo the stretching and thus shorten the horizontal distance between two points on either side of the fault.