Lab 9: Structural Geology Part II
Lab Structure
| Recommended additional work | Yes – review for final lab project |
| Required materials | Printed block models 1 to 6, pencil, pencil crayons, ruler, protractor |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lab, you should be able to:
- Describe the types of stresses that exist within the Earth’s crust.
- Explain how rocks respond to those stresses by brittle, elastic, or plastic deformation, or by fracturing.
- Summarize how rocks become folded and know the terms used to describe the features of folds.
- Summarize the different types of faults, including normal, reverse, thrust, and strike-slip.
- Visualize layers of rocks that form complex geologic structures in three-dimensional space.
- Recognize and describe geologic structures in block models and on geological maps.
Key Terms
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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 key 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, planes of foliation, dykes and sills, 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.
