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Structural Geology
• the study of the three-dimensional distribution of rock units
with respect to their deformational histories.

A geologic structure is
a geometric
configuration of rocks.

Folds

Fault
Deformation - the change in
shape, position and/or volume of
an object in response to applied
forces.
Why Study Structural Geology
1) UTILITARIAN MOTIVATIONS:
• slope stability.
• foundation and tunnel stability (especially important for critical structures
such as dams).
• fluid flow pathways, especially in fractured and faulted rocks.
• aquifer geometry (e.g. faults as barriers versus conduits).
• structural integrity of waste sites.
• seismic hazard risk assessment (e.g. realized in last decade that fold
formation can produce earthquakes).
• finding and understanding hydrocarbon structural traps.
• exploration models for mineralization - mineralization is often localized in
specific structural sites.

2) INTELLECTUAL MOTIVATIONS:
• Just plain curiosity why continents move around; mountains grow, die and
regrow; hard rocks deform like putty, etc.
Associated Disciplines:
1) TECTONICS - focus on large scale crustal movements and
structural associations.
2) GEOPHYSICS – use or application of physical properties of rocks
to “look” into the subsurface.
3) ROCK MECHANICS – the theory behind rock deformation
4) BASIN ANALYSIS – a system science looking at behavior in
sedimentary basins.
Structural Geology is also used in:
Tectonics
• large-scale processes affecting the structure of the earth's crust.
• relates to the building and resulting structure of the Earth’s lithosphere,
and to the motions that change and shape the outer parts of the Earth.
Plate Tectonics
• the large-scale part of tectonics that directly involves the movement and
interaction of lithospheric plates.
Neotectonics
• concerned with recent and ongoing crustal motions and the
contemporaneous stress field; expressed by current fault traces, scarps,
seismic information, changes in elevation, etc.
Microtectonics
• describes microscale deformation and deformation structures visible
under the microscope.
Salt Tectonics – deformation related to salt diapirs
Glacial Tectonics – deformation related to the movement of
glaciers
Structural Geology
• Observation, description and interpretation of structures that can be
mapped in the field.
• Recognition of STRAIN in rocks
• STRAIN – expressed as deformation or geometrical modification of pre-
existing rock structures; several episodes may superpose the older episode.
• STRAIN – change in shape
Structural Geology
• Strain is caused by STRESS which we do not see (unlike strain which we can
observe)
• But we know that there will be no strain is there is no stress that exceeds
the rock’s resistance to deformation.
Being able to recognize tectonic deformation depends on our knowledge of
primary structures (cross-stratification, pebble shape, a primary magmatic
texture, etc.)

Deformed Trilobite Overturned cross-bedding in quartzite

Ductile Deformation
• Involves compression, stretching
and folding without breaking;
rocks “flow” under the influence
of stress.
Stretched pebbles in
meta-conglomerate

From granite to gneiss

Brittle Deformation
• When competent rocks
rupture and break,
resulting in fracturing and
faulting

Microfracture
Lithospheric Fault

Outcrop-scale Fault
Structural Geology
• Covers surface and near-surface brittle deformation to the deeper and
hotter environment of ductile deformation.
• Data must be analyzed and interpreted – structural analysis
• Analysis lead to a tectonic model that explains the structural observations
and puts them into context with respect to larger-scale processes (e.g.,
rifting, subduction).
Tools of Structural Geology
Field Observation - direct and important source of information on how
rocks deform; objective observations and careful descriptions of
naturally deformed rocks.
Remote Sensing – Mostly imagery including air photos and satellite data,
DEM, Google Earth, GIS, etc..
Geophysics – Potential (gravity, magnetic, radioactive) and induced
(seismic –natural or man-made, electric, electromagnetic, GPR, VLF)
Experiments – performed in the laboratory give us valuable knowledge of
how various physical conditions, including stress field, boundary
condition, temperature or the physical properties of the deforming
material, relate to deformation.
Numerical Modeling - rock deformation is simulated on a computer;
together with experiments, provides information on how deformations
evolve historically and how rocks will behave under stress.
Remote Sensing
Geodesy (GPS) and GIS
Geophysics
Geophysics

Seismic 2-D Line

Experiments
Experiments
Numerical Modeling
Structural Analyses
• Involves synthesizing the data sets from various sources either to deconstruct
and see the “original undeformed state” of the rocks to understand the history
or predict future deformational effects.
Geometric analysis - shape, geographic orientation, size and geometric relation
between the main (first-order) structure and related smaller-scale (second-
order) structures; the classic descriptive approach to structural geology that
most secondary structural geologic analytical methods build on.
Shape - the spatial description of open or closed surfaces such as folded
layer interfaces or fault surfaces.
• The shape of folded layers may give information about the fold-forming
process or the mechanical properties of the folded layer, while fault
curvature may have implications for hanging-wall deformation or could
give information about the slip direction.
Orientations – vector representation of deformation;
• very useful to represent orientation data by means of sterographic
projection to show and interpret both orientation and geometry of
structures.
Structural Analyses
Strain analysis – maybe finite, which concerns changes in shape from the initial
state to the very end result of the deformation, or incremental, in which only a
portion of the deformation history is considered, and a sequence of increments
describes the deformation history.
Kinematic analysis - concerns how rock particles have moved during
deformation, aided by geometric and secondary deformational indicators.
Dynamic analysis - the study of forces that cause motion of particles
(kinematics) or the interplay between stress and kinematics.
Deformation, Strain and Stress
Deformation - The change in shape, position and/or
volume of a rock in response to applied forces.
• determined by comparing the rock’s deformed and
undeformed states.
Two types:
1) Rigid body deformation – translation and rotation
2) Non-rigid body deformation – strain and volume
change
Rigid body deformation
• Occurs when a rock mass moves of rotates with no
change of shape.
• only detectable if there is an external reference
frame.
Example: rotation of the African continent since the
Jurassic, rotation can be recognised from palaeomagnetic
data.