Thrust Fault Hanging Wall

Generally when the fault dips less than 45 it s called a thrust fault steeper faults are called reverse faults.

Thrust fault hanging wall.

The boundary between hanging wall and fault zone is marked by a sharp transition from coherent bedding to pervasively brittlely and ductilely deformed fault zone rock fagereng et al 2019. The lewis overthrust is a geologic thrust fault structure of the rocky mountains found within the bordering national parks of glacier in montana united states and waterton lakes in alberta canada. According to mechanical models of. Diagram showing how one section of land slips over another in a thrust fault.

The difference between the two faults is the angle of the fault. Thrusts are commonly low angle faults. This is not however a hard and fast distinction. Reverse dip slip faults result from horizontal compressional forces caused by a shortening or contraction of earth s crust.

The angle of the fault plane in a reverse fault is greater than 45 degrees the hanging wall on one side of the fault moves upward and is usually visible on the surface of the earth. Thrust faults with a very low angle of dip. A thrust fault has the same sense of motion as a reverse fault but with the dip of the fault plane at less than 45. Thrust faults are reverse faults that dip less than 45.

The hanging wall moves up and over the footwall. The deformation style is localized and variable. Thrust faults typically form ramps flats and fault bend hanging wall and footwall folds. A thrust or a reverse fault is a dipping fault whose hanging wall is translated up dip.