Notes #15

DEFORMATIONS AND MOUNTAIN BUILDING

Deformation / Strain Change in shape and/or volume of rocks due to stress
Factors affecting Deformation:
1. Kind of stress
2. Pressure and temperature
3. Rock type
4. Length of time stress is applied
3 Main types of Stresses:
1. Compression rocks are squeezed or compressed by external forces directed toward one
another; lead to folding and faulting
2. Tension results from forces acting in opposite directions along the same line; lead to
block-faulting (formation of horst uplifted blocks; and graben down-dropped blocks)
3. Shear Stress forces act parallel to one another but in opposite directions; lead to
displacement along closely spaced planes
Strains:
1. Elastic Strain deformed rocks return to their original shape when stress is relaxed
2. Plastic strain permanent deformation of ductile rocks (e.g. folds)
3. Fracture permanent deformation of brittle rocks (e.g. faults)
Types of Folds:
1. Monocline a simple bend or flexure
2. Anticline up-arched fold
3. Syncline down-arched fold
4. Plunging folds fold axis is inclined; fold seems to plunge beneath adjacent rocks
5. Dome down-arched circular fold; rock layers dip outward from a central point
6. Basin up-arched circular fold; ; rock layers dip inward toward a central point
Fault Types:
1. Dip-slip vertical movements
a. Normal hanging wall moves down relative to the footwall
b. Reverse hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall
c. Thrust hanging wall moves up at a dip of less than 45C
2. Strike-slip horizontal movements
3. Oblique-slip horizontal and vertical movements
Mountain any area of land that stands significantly higher, at least 300 m, than the surrounding
country and has a restricted summit area
Mountain Range a group of closely spaced mountains or parallel ridges; related in age and
origin
Mountain Belt chains of thousands of kilometers long composed of numerous mountain ranges
Orogeny an episode of mountain building during which intense deformation takes place,
generally accompanied by metamorphism, emplacement of plutons (especially batholiths), and
thickening of Earths crust; related to plate movements; episodes such as differential weathering
and erosion, volcanism, compression, tension, uplift and erosion.
Characteristics of major Belts
1. Size and alignment
- Length greater than width (long and narrow)
- North-south alignment

Mountain Building

2. Age
- Higher mountain ranges are younger
- Episodes of uplift and erosion
3. Thickness of rock layers
- Thick sedimentary sequence of a mountain belt
- Marine origin
4. Metamorphism and plutonism
- Complex of regional metamorphic and plutonic rocks in the most deformed portions
of major mountain belts
5. Episode of normal faulting
- Normal faulting due to uplift or tensional stress
6. Thickness and density of Rocks
- Lighter density of rocks in the continental crust
- Thick layer under mountain belts
Features of active mountain ranges
- Frequent earthquakes
- Deep ocean trenches parallel to many young mountain belts
- Isolated active volcanoes
- Usually along convergent plate boundaries (oceanic-oceanic, oceanic-continental,
continental-continental)
- Most present-day orogenic activity occurs in 2 major belts: (1) Alpine-Himalayan
orogenic belt, (2) Circum-Pacific orogenic belt
Evolution of a mountain belt
1. Accumulation Stage
- Accumulation of great thickness of sedimentary or volcanic rocks
- Marine environment
- Accumulation in an opening ocean basin
2. Orogenic Stage
- Episode of intense deformation of the rocks in a region
- Deformation is accompanied by metamorphism and igneous activity
- Folds and Faults
3. Uplift and block-faulting stage
- Long period of uplift and erosion
- Newly thickened crust adjusts isostatically (analogous to an iceberg; buoyancy
principle) Isostatic rebound
- Greater uplift along normal faults
Continental accretion addition of new material to continents
Terranes blocks of rocks that differ completely in their fossil content, structural trends, and
paleomagnetic properties from the rocks of the surrounding mountain system; most geologists
think they formed elsewhere and were carried great distances as parts of other plates until they
collided with continents

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