Hanging Wall And Footwall Reverse Fault

The terminology of normal and reverse comes from coal mining in england where normal faults are the most common.

Hanging wall and footwall reverse fault.

Mike dunning dorling kindersle getty images. The unloading of the footwall can lead to isostatic uplift and doming of the more ductile material beneath. The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep greater than 45. The hanging wall composed of extended thinned and brittle crustal material can be cut by numerous normal faults.

The block below a fault plane is the footwall. If you imagine undoing the motion of a reverse fault you will undo the compression and thus lengthen the horizontal distance between two points on either side of the fault. A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall. If the hanging wall rises relative to the footwall you have a reverse fault.

The reverse faults occur when the hanging wall works its way up the footwall. Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. Reverse faults occur in areas undergoing compression squishing. Plutonism is the result of the magma as it has reached the earth s surface into pre existing rock.

These either merge into the detachment fault at depth or simply terminate at the detachment fault surface without shallowing. The forces creating reverse faults are compressional pushing the sides together. In a reverse fault the hanging wall block moves up relative to the footwall block. Reverse faults are exactly the opposite of normal faults.

This is the result of tension built up. They are common at convergent boundaries. The block above is the hanging wall. True the oldest sedimentary rock strata are exposed along the axial parts of deeply eroded anticlines.

2 1 volcanism is the process by which molten rock reaches the earth s surface in order to make new landforms.