Geology and Geomorphology Engineering

AL-Albayt UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Engineering
Surveying Engineering Department

Dr. Hussein Harahsheh

Dr. Hussein Harahsheh Geology and Geomorphology

Engineering – Al Albayt University
 Chapter 6
Structural geology
Lecture 14

Dr. Hussein Harahsheh Geology and Geomorphology Engineering –

Al Albayt University
 Introduction
• Observing and understanding geological structures helps us to determine the
kinds of stresses that have existed within Earth’s crust in the past.

• This type of information is critical to our understanding of plate tectonics,

earthquakes, the formation of mountains, metamorphism, and Earth resources.

• Some of the types of geological structures that are important to study include
bedding planes, dykes, fractures, faults, and folds.

• Structural geologists make careful observations of the orientations of these

structures and the amount and direction of offset along faults.

• Locating and mapping these structural features is important for safe

engineering of infrastructure such as roads and housing.

• A good understanding of geological structures in the subsurface is also critical

for mineral and petroleum exploration.
 Stress and Strain
• Rocks are subject to stress—mostly related to plate tectonics but
also to the weight of overlying rocks—and their response to that
stress is strain (deformation).

• Three types of Stress:

1. Compressive stress: In regions close to where
plates are converging stress is typically
compressional—the rocks are being squeezed
or pushed toward one another from opposite
directions (cause shortening or flattening).
2. Tensional stress: Where plates are diverging
the stress is tensional—rocks are being pulled
apart in opposite directions (cause stretching
or extension).
3. Shear stress: At transform plate boundaries,
where plates are moving side by side there is
sideways or shear stress—meaning that there
are forces in opposite directions parallel to a
plane.
Strain response to stress:
Rock can respond to stress in three ways:
1) Elastic strain : A lightly-deformed material will recover its original shape after
the stress is removed. Elastic behavior occurs at very low stresses. like a rubber
band that is
stretched and released.

2) Brittle strain: Near the Earth’s surface (low T and P), rocks exhibit brittle
behavior...rocks will fracture (faults).

3) Ductile/plastic strain: At depth in the Earth (high T and P), rocks exhibit plastic
behavior…. rocks will bend and flow (folds).

Factors of strain response to stress:

Rocks have highly varying strain responses to stress because of Rocks material’s
compositions and physical properties.
1. Rocks temperature.
2. Material’s wetness
3. The rate at which the stress is applied.
 Strain response illustration
The varying types of response of geological materials to stress.

1. The straight dashed parts are elastic

strain.
2. The curved parts are plastic strain.
3. In each case the X marks where the
material fractures.
4. A, the strongest material, deforms
relatively little and breaks at a high
stress level.
5. B, strong but brittle, shows no plastic
deformation and breaks after
relatively little elastic deformation.
6. C, the most deformable, breaks only
after significant elastic and plastic
strain.
7. The three deformation diagrams on
the right show A and C before
breaking and B after breaking
The outcomes of placing rock under stress are highly variable, but they include
fracturing, tilting and folding, stretching and squeezing, and faulting.

A fracture is a simple break that does not involve significant movement of the rock
on either side. Fracturing is particularly common in volcanic rock, which shrinks as
it cools. The basalt columns in Figure a are a good example of fracture.

Beds are sometimes tilted by tectonic forces, as shown in Figure b, or folded.

When a body of rock is compressed in one direction
it is typically extended (or stretched) in another.
Most of the rock in Figure c is limestone, which is
relatively weak and easily deformed when heated.
The dark rock is chert, which is relatively stronger
and remains brittle. As the limestone stretched
(parallel to the hammer handle) the brittle chert
was forced to break into fragments to accommodate
the change in shape of the body of rock.

Figure d shows another type of brittle structure

called a fault. Like fractures, faults result from
brittle breaking of a rock unit. The key difference
is that the bodies of rock on either side of the fault
have been displaced relative to each other by the
faulting.
 Definition of Dip and Strike
• Dip literally means slope or inclination. In structural geology dip is expressed both
as direction and amount.
• Dip direction- is the direction along which the inclination of the bedding plane
occurs.
• Dip amount- The maximum angle between the inclined plane and the horizontal
plane. Dip is measured perpendicular to strike.
 Definition of Dip and Strike
• Strike refers to the direction in which a geological structure is present. The
strike direction may be defined as: The compass direction of a line marking the
intersection of an inclined plane with a horizontal plane (i.e., the Earth’s surface).
MEASURING Strike
MEASURING Dip
 Folds
• Folds are one of the most common geological structures found
in rocks. When a set of horizontal layers are subjected to
compressive forces, they bend either upward or downward.
The bend noticed in rocks are called folds.
• In terms of their nature too, folds may occur as single local
bends or may occur repeatedly folded to the tectonic history of
the region.
 Folds
• When a body of rock, especially sedimentary rock, is squeezed from the sides
by tectonic forces, it is likely to fracture and/or become faulted if it is cold and
brittle.

• The body of rock become folded if it is warm enough to behave in a ductile

manner.
•
The nomenclature and geometry of folds are summarized in Figure 10.2.1.
1. An upward fold is called an anticline (or, more accurately, an antiform if we
don’t know if the beds have been overturned or not).

2. While a downward fold is called a syncline, (or a synform if we don’t know if

the beds have been overturned).
3. In many areas it’s common to find a series of antiforms and synforms (as in
Figure).
4. A plane drawn through the crest of a fold in a series of beds is called the axial
plane of the fold.
5. The sloping beds on either side of an axial plane are called the limbs of the fold.
6. An antiform or synform is described as symmetrical if the angles between
each of limb and the axial plane are generally similar, and
7. asymmetrical if they are not.
8. If the axial plane is sufficiently tilted that the beds on one side have been
tilted past vertical, the fold is known as an overturned antiform or synform.
9. If the limbs dip away from one another, they form an antiform. If the limbs dip
toward one another, they form a synform
A very tight fold, in which the limbs are parallel or nearly parallel to one another is
called an isoclinal fold (Figure 10.2.2). Isoclinal folds that have been overturned to
the extent that their limbs are nearly horizontal are called recumbent folds.

Folds can be of any size, and it’s very common to have smaller folds within
larger folds (Figure 10.2.3).
Large folds can have wavelengths of tens of kilometres, and very small ones
might be visible only under a microscope.
 Erosion of folds

Antiforms (anticlin) are not necessarily, or even typically, expressed as ridges in the
terrain, nor synforms (Syncline) as valleys.

Folded rocks get eroded just like all other rocks and the topography that results is
typically controlled mostly by the resistance of different layers to erosion (Figure
10.2.4).
 Ages of Bed layers

• As folded rocks are eroded away, anticlines and

synclines can be recognized not only by the dip
directions of their limbs, but also by examining
their map patterns in plan view (Figure 10.2.5).

• Eroded anticlines expose older rocks near the

surface trace of the axial plane, and the rocks get
progressively younger as you move away from the
axial plane in either direction.

• Eroded synclines have the youngest rocks exposed

near the surface trace of the axial plane, and the
rocks get progressively older as you move away
from the axial plane in either direction.

• In this Figure, the youngest rock in the diagram

(labeled ‘6’) is exposed in the centre of the
syncline, whereas the oldest rock visible in plan
view is exposed in the centre of the anticline
(labeled as ‘4’).
 Mechanisms of Folding
• Folding of rocks takes place by different ways of accommodation of stress. In
many cases, slips or shear occur in between the beds.
• The process is similar to slipping of cards which occurs when the set is fold. If
they are not allowed to slip over one another, folding of the set cannot take
place.
• This is the way in which folding generally occur in the case
of hard and competent rock like quartzites.
• In another kind of folding, folds are characterized by thinning of
the limbs and thinking of crest and troughs. This takes place commonly in weak
and incompetent rocks like shales.
 Causes and Effects of Folding

• Most of the important folds, as already pointed

out, are due to tectonic causes. But a few folds of a
minor type are due to non-tectonic causes,
• Mainly, the compressive and shear type of tectonic
forces are responsible for the folding
phenomenon. Igneous intrusion of viscous
magmas such as laccoliths and lopoliths also
contribute to folding.
• Non-tectonic causes like
landslides, creeping, differential
compaction, isostatic setting and glaciations too are
responsible for some folds. These are minor in
terms of frequency of occurrence and magnitude.
Describe the type of fold?
 Faults
• Fault- A planar feature formed by brittle deformation in which there has
been movement of rock (called displacement) along the plane. A fault is a
boundary between two bodies of rock along which there has been relative
motion.
• In order to estimate the amount of motion on a fault, we need to find some
geological feature that shows up on both sides and has been offset (Figure
10.3.2).
• From the Civil engineering point of view, faults are the most unfavorable and
undesirable geological structures at the site for any given purpose, i.e. for
location of reservoir; as foundations site for construction of dams,
importance bridges or huge buildings, for tunneling; for laying roads,
railways tracks, etc.
• This is because faults considerably weaken the rocks and render the sites in
which they occur as unfavorable places for all constructional purposes.
• Further, as long as the faults are active, the site is unstable and susceptible
to upward, downward or sideward movement along the fault plane,
thereby making the places highly hazardous for foundation purposes. Thus,
by virtue of the harm they are capable of causing, faults are necessarily
investigated with special care in dealing with any major construction.
 Parts of a Fault
The different parts of a Fault
• Fault Plane: This is the plane along
which the adjacent blocks were
relatively displaced.
• Foot Wall : When the fault plane is
inclined, the faulted block which
lies below the fault plane is called
the “foot wall” . the body of rock
below the fault.
• Hanging wall and the other block
which rests above the fault plane is
called “hanging wall”. The body of Foot wall
Hanging wall
rock above the fault. Angle > 90o
Angle < 90o
 Parts of a Fault
Slip
• The displacement that occurs during faulting is
called the slip. This may be along the strike direction
or the dip direction or along both.
Faults Types
Normal fault
Type of dip fault in which the hanging wall moves down relative to
footwall in response to gravity. Normal faults are the products of
tensional stress (divergent boundary).
Normal fault- Horst and Graben
Horst- A block of land that is bounded by normal faults and moves
upward relative to adjacent blocks.

Graben- A block of land that is bounded by normal faults and moves

down relative to adjacent blocks.
Normal fault- Horst and Graben
Due to the tensional strees normal faults are created in a series. In
such a case the down-dropped blocks form grabens and the uplifted
blocks form horsts
Normal faults Rift valleys formed
Red Sea Graben

Fault-block
mountains

Normal Faults
Reverse fault

Reverse fault- A type of dip-slip fault in which the hanging wall moves
up relative to footwall. Reverse faults are the result of compressional
stress (continent-continent convergent boundary). A reverse fault is also
known as a thrust fault.

1. If the fault develops in a situation of compression, then it will be a reverse fault

because the compression causes the hanging wall to be pushed up relative to the
footwall.
• A special type of reverse fault, with a very low angle fault plane, is known as a
thrust fault.

• Thrust faults are relatively common in areas where fold belt mountains have
been created during continent-continent collision. Some represent tens of
kilometres of thrusting, where thick sheets of sedimentary rock have been
pushed up and over top of other rock (Figure 10.3.7).

• There are numerous thrust faults in the Rocky Mountains, and a well-known
example is the McConnell Thrust, along which a sequence of sedimentary rocks
about 800 metres thick has been pushed for about 40 kilometres from west to
east (Figure 10.3.8).

• The thrusted rocks range in age from Cambrian to Cretaceous, so in the area
around Mt. Yamnuska Cambrian-aged rock (around 500 Ma) has been thrust
over, and now lies on top of Cretaceous-aged rock (around 75 Ma) (Figure
10.3.9).
Faults Types- map symbols
The map symbols for reverse faults and normal faults are illustrated in
Figure 10.3.4.
These known as Dip-Slip Faults
What type of fault these?
What type of fault these?
Strike-Slip Fault (transform fault)
The third situation is where the bodies of rock are sliding sideways with respect to
each other, as is the case along a transform. This is known as a strike-slip fault
because the displacement is horizontal (or with a very small vertical component)
along the “strike” or the length of the fault. The motion can be right lateral or it can
be left lateral (the far side moves to the left).

Right-lateral Fault- Looking across the fault, a feature like a stream has been displaced
to the right, the far side moves to the right. The San Andreas Fault in California is a
right-lateral strike-slip fault.

Left-lateral Fault - Looking across the fault, a feature like a stream has been displaced
to the left, the far side moves to the left
 Faults Types- Map symbols
Map symbols for these strike-slip faults are illustrated in Figure 10.3.5. Transform faults
are strike-slip faults.

Left Strike Faults Right Strike Faults

Summary- Faults Types
 Magnitude of Faults
• Like folds, faults also have considerable range in their magnitude. Some occur for
short distance, while other can be traced for very long distances. In some cases
displacement may be less than a centimeter while in other it may be many or
even kilometers. The magnitude of faulting obviously depend on the intensity and
the nature of shearing stresses involved.
 Joints

• Structurally, faults may be described as fractures

along which relative displacement of adjacent
blocks has taken place.
• If such relative displacement does not take place
on either side of fracture plane, it is called a joint.
Thus both joint and faults are fractures in rocks
but with difference in the kind of displacement.
Joints may be described as a set of aligned parallel
cracks or openings in geological formations.
 Joints
Fractures where
displacement
does not take
place
 Joints
Effects of Joints
• From the civil engineering point of view, joints
are important because they split the rocks into
a number of pieces which, in turn, reduce
the competence of rock mass, increase the
porosity and permeability and make them
susceptible to quick decay and weathering.

• Joints occurrence increases the ground water

potential in any place.