10.3.1: Folding and Faulting
- Page ID
- 21757
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When rocks deform by plastic deformation they can bend and fold. The process of folding occurs when rock is compressed, as it is along colliding plate boundaries. Upturned folds are called anticlines 
and down turned folds are called synclines . Anticlines and synclines are geologic structures, that is, they are folds in rock material. They give expression to the surface as linear ridges (anticlines) and troughs (synclines).
Faulting
When enormous stresses build, faulting of the surface is likely to occur. A fault is a fracture along which movement occurs. The plane that extends into the earth and along which slippage occurs is called the fault plane. We identify the hanging and foot walls relative to the fault plane. The hanging wall is above the fault plane while the foot wall is below. The steep face of an exposed block is called the fault scarp.
Faults can be traced for thousands of kilometers across the surface at tens of kilometers in depth. The sudden slippage of rock masses past one another results in shock waves that we feel as an earthquake.
