Elsci Week4
Elsci Week4
What do I know?
ACTIVITY
STRESS IN THE EARTH’S CRUST
Directions: In one word describe each plate.
INTRODUCTION
Rocks are solid, but will respond when force are applied to them. When rock deformation is being
discussed the term stress is used rather than pressure.
The tectonic movement of the Earth's plates has resulted in the folding and faulting of the Earth's crust.
This is caused by the Earth's plates converging, diverging or transversing against one another. This causes the
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crust of the Earth to buckle and strain, generating incredible amounts of pressure that build up as time
progresses and may conclude in the release of this energy.
MAIN LESSON
WHAT IS A STRESS?
Stress is the force applied to a rock.
In Geology stress is the force per unit area that is
placed on a rock.
TYPES OF STRESS
Confining stress
Compression stress
Tension stress
Shear stress
CONFINING STRESS
Happens as weight of all the overlying rock pushes down on a deeply buried rock.
The rock is being pushed in from all sides, which compresses it.
COMPRESSION STRESS
Compression stress squeezes rocks together.
Compression causes rocks to fold or fracture.
Compression is the most common stress at
convergent plate boundaries.
TENSION STRESS
Tension stress pulls rocks apart.
Tension causes rocks to lengthen or break apart.
Tension is the major type of stress found at divergent plate boundaries.
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SHEAR STRESS
Shear stress happens when forces slide past
each other in opposite directions
This is the most common stress found at
transform plate boundaries.
FOLDS
When rocks are experiencing stress deform plastically, the rock crumple into folds.
When a rock bends without breaking, it folds.
Folds are made up when two plates the earth’s crust collide
-Monoclines
-Anticlines
-Synclines
A monocline is a simple “one step” bends in the rock layers. In a monocline, the oldest rocks are still at the
bottom and the youngest are at the top.
An anticline is a fold that arches upward. The rocks dip away from the center of the fold. The oldest rocks are
found at the center of an anticline. The youngest rocks are draped over them at the top of the structure.
FRACTURES
Fractures are among the most common of all geologic features.
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A crack or a fault in a rock.
FAULTS
The place where movement occurs along plate boundary.
Faults are fractures in Earth's crust where rocks on either side of the crack have slid past each other.
Faults are cracks in earth’s crust where movement occurs on at least one side.
TYPES OF FAULT
Normal fault create space.
Two blocks of crust pull apart, stretching the crust
into a valley
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SUMMARY
Stress is the force applied to a rock, which can cause the rock to change. The three main types of stress
go along with the three types of plate boundaries. Compression is common at convergent boundaries, tension at
divergent boundaries, and shear at transform boundaries.
Geologic faults are fractures in lithospheric rocks, and fractures are cracks in rocks, along which
movement of rocks has happened while a fold occurs when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces,
such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation.
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