DEFORMATION OF THE EARTH’S CRUST
Tensional Stress
FOLDING AND FAULTING
Deformation
- encompasses any change in shape, position,
and/or volume of a rock in response to stress.
- the process by which the crust is deformed along
tectonic plate margins.
- produces a variety of geologic structures such as
folds, faults, joints, and foliation.
a. Folds
- occur when one planar surface is bent or curved
as a result of permanent deformation
- Defined as a bend in rocks that is a response to
compressional force
- Most visible in rocks contained layering
b. Fault
- is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume
of rock
- Forms in rocks when the stresses overcome the
internal strength of the rock resulting in a fracture
- Displacement of once connected blocks of rocks
c. Joints
- Brittle fractures surface in rocks along which
little or no displacement happened
d. Foliation
STRESS
- is the force per unit area applied on the rock
- cause
STRAIN
- the change in shape or volume of the rock that
experienced stress
- effect
Three Fundamental Kinds of Stress to
Which Rocks Are Subjected:
1. Compressional (squeezing)
2. Tensional (stretching)
3. Shear (wrenching)
1. Compressional Stress
• Stress that squeezes a body of rock.
• Causes the rock to bulge up and down
• Occurs at convergent plate boundaries.
2.
• Stress that stretches and pulls a body of
rock apart.
• Causes the rock to become thinner.
• Occurs at divergent plate boundaries.
3. Shear Stress
• Stress that distorts a body of rock by pushing
parts in opposite directions.
• Causes rock to bend, twist, or break apart.
• Occurs at transform plate boundaries.
• If stress is applied slowly, the rock may regain its
original shape once the stress is removed.
• There are limits to how much stress a rock can
endure before becoming permanently deformed.
Elastic - describes a material that returns to its
original shape once the stress that deforms it is
removed.
Inelastic - describes a material that does not return
to its original shape after it is deformed.
a. BRITTLE - materials respond to stress by
breaking and fracturing
b. DUCTILE - materials respond to stress by
bending or deforming without breaking
Permanent Strains
1. Brittle Strain - results in cracks or fractures
2. Ductile Strain - is change in volume or shape
without breaking
STAGES OF DEFORMATION:
• Elastic Deformation
• Ductile Deformation
• Fracture
Brittle materials - have a small or large region of
elastic behavior but only a small region of ductile
behavior before they fracture.
Ductile materials - have a small region of elastic Types of Folds
behavior and a large region of ductile behavior 1. Monoclines
before they fracture. - the simplest types of folds
- occur when horizontal strata are bent upward so
Factors affecting Deformation: that the two limbs of the fold are still horizontal.
• Confining Pressure
• Temperature
• Strain rate
• Composition

1. Confining Pressure
• At high confining pressure materials are less
likely to fracture because the pressure of the
surroundings tends to hinder the formation of
fractures. At low confining stress, material will be
brittle and tend to fracture sooner.
2. Anticlines
- folds where the originally horizontal strata has
been folded upward, and the two limbs of the fold
dip away from the hinge of the fold.

2. Temperature
• At high temperature molecules and their bonds
can stretch and move, thus materials will behave in
more ductile manner. At low temperature,
materials are brittle.

3. Strain Rate 3. Synclines

• At high strain rates material tends to fracture. At - folds where the originally horizontal strata have
low strain rates more time is available for individual been folded downward, and the two limbs of the
atoms to move and therefore ductile behavior is fold dip inward toward the hinge of the fold.
favored.

4. Composition
• Some minerals, like quartz, olivine, and
feldspars are very brittle. Others, like clay
minerals, micas, and calcite are more ductile.
This is due to the chemical bond types that hold
them together.

• Water appears to weaken the chemical bonds and

forms films around mineral grains along which
slippage can take place. Thus wet rock tends to
behave in ductile manner, while dry rocks tend to
behave in brittle manner.

• Low temperature, low confining pressure, and high

rate of strain enhance the brittle properties of rock.

• High temperature, high confining pressure and low

rate of strain enhances the ductile behavior of rocks.

• The composition of a material determines the

point at which brittle-ductile transition occurs.

BRITTLE DEFORMATION
• Joints - fractures in rock that show no offset along
the fracture.
- usually planar features

• Faults - occur when brittle rocks fracture and there

is an offset along the fracture.

DUCTILE DEFORMATION
• Folds - rock layers bend; usually the result of a
compression.
- it can be compared to the waves in the ocean.