Hanging Wall Vs Footwall Faults

It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping.

Hanging wall vs footwall faults.

More common are headwalls angular in map view due to irregularities in height along. This situation however is generally found only in cirques cut into flat plateaus. The hanging wall is the block of rock above the fault line. The line it makes on the earth s surface is the fault trace.

The dip of a fault plane is its angle of inclination measured from the horizontal. In a non vertical fault where the fault plane dips the footwall is the section of the fault that lies under the fault while the hanging wall lies over the fault the names come about from the. Where the fault plane is sloping as with normal and reverse faults. The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep greater than 45.

You can hang something from the hanging wall as if it were a ceiling. In an ideal cirque the headwall is semicircular in plan view. A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall. An arcuate cliff called the headwall.

Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. Before getting into the different types of faults you must understand the difference between a hanging wall and a footwall. Other articles where hanging wall is discussed. Hanging wall definition the underside of the wall rock overlying a vein or bed of ore.

The main components of a fault are 1 the fault plane 2 the fault trace 3 the hanging wall and 4 the footwall. The terminology of normal and reverse comes from coal mining in england where normal faults are the most common. Block below is called the footwall. Cirques tarns u shaped valleys arêtes and horns.