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Figure 4.22 Series of t and a reverse fault. A and immediately after faulting. sides.

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Fault scarp
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Fault

Fault plane

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Block diagram showing a fault plane Figure 4.26 and the focus and epicenter of an earthquake generated by movement along the fault. Arrows show direction of relative movement along the fault and concentric shaded circles show the propagation of seismic waves. (From Carla W. Montgomery, Physical Geology, 2d ed. Copyright O 1990 Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission.) Figure 4.25 Part of the geologic map of Swan Island quadrangle, Tennessee, 197 1, U.S. Geological Survey. Scale, 1:24,000; contour interval, 20 feet.

Active Faults Fault Scarps and Fault Traces

Earthquake Epicenters and Foci

The nomenclature of active faults is identical with the nomenclature of inactive faults. The attitude of an active fault plane may range from vertical to horizontal. Movement along the fault plane may produce a fault scarp at the earth's surface, but this scarp may be destroyed by erosion over time so that only a trace of the fault plane remains. Fault traces and fault scarps of both active and inactive faults can be identified on aerial photographs or images from earth-orbiting satellites by abrupt changes in topography or color patterns.

The place where movement begins on the fault plane marks the-focus of the resulting earthquake, and the point on the earth's surface vertically above the focus is the epicenter of the quake (fig. 4.26). The focus and epicenter of an earthquake that is generated on a vertical fault plane define the fault plane as a line on a cross section. If the earthquake is generated by movement along an inclined fault plane, the fault plane is defined in cross section by a line passing through the focus and the fault scarp or fault trace at the earth's surface. When movement occurs along a fault plane, energy is released and an earthquake is produced.

Part 4

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Figure 4.28 Generalized map of the greater Los Angeles area showing traces of some of the faults occurring there, also the epicenters of the Ft. Tejon earthquake of 1857 and the Sylrnar earthquake of 1971. (R. H. Campbell, 1976. Active faults in the Los Angeles-Ventura area of southern California. ERTS- 1: A New Window on Our Planet, U.S.G.S. Professional Paper 929, pp. 1 13-16.)

Structural Geology

South
Ft. Teion Earthauake

North

Figure 4.29 Schematic north-south cross section across the trace of the San Andreas fault showing the epicenter and focus of the Ft. Tejon earthquake of 1857.

1 South

San Gabriel Mtns

Figure 4.30 Schematic north-south cross-section from San Fernando across the San Gabriel Mountains through the epicenter of the Sylmar earthquake of 1971. Vertical scale exaggerated. (After R. Greensfelder, 197 1. "Seismologic and crustal movement investigations of the San Fernando earthquake." In California Geology, April-May 1971, p. 64.)

Part 4

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TECTONICS

Earls Ideas:
Continental Drift: Francis Bacon was among the first to be
impressed by the patpa,Jlelism of the coasts bordering the
Atlantic and considered the possibility of the two opposing continental masses drifting apart. in 1858, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini -&&-shed maps in @trc depicting continental drift. In fact he linked
@iie the fracturing and pulling apart of the Americas from the
Old World to Noah's Flood.

- in the late 1800's, scientists such as Edward Forbes began to notice theC%Zstribution of living organisms, such as earth worms and marsupials, that required former continental connections. That led to speculation about numerous 'land bridges'. [Since debunked because isostasy makes it unlikely that continental masses will sink also exploration of the ocean floors has failed to provide evidence for such large-scale foundering].

......

- At the beginning of the 20th century, an Austrian geologist, Eduard Suess, proposed one of the most ~g&<pba.l ontraetion hypothesis a favoured theories whereby he believed the earth's surface wrinkled and cracked like dried fruit, as it cooled and contracted from a molten mass. Large troughs of sediments, or geossnclines formed in the wrinkles, and were eventually uplifted into mountain belts. Furthermore, he,proposed that all. the continents had once been joined together in . a single land mass which he c a l l e d ~ d .w a n a l a n d .

....

.....

However, it is the German meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, who is remembered as the 'Father of Continental largely because of the comprehensiveness of drift' his research. Between his first paper in 1912 and his death during an expedition to Greenland in 1930, his work was published in 5 languages, and his discoveries continued to have an impact. His most significant contribution, however, was his book, The Origin of Continents and Oceans, published in 1915. He presented evidence for all the continents ' having been joined about 200 Ma in a single supercontinent, called (meaning 'all lands'). He further postulated tha 180 Ma, during the Mesozoic, and continuing up to the present, Pangaea fragmented, first in the southern hemisphere, and later in the north.

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