Hanging Wall Vs Footwall Faults

Other articles where hanging wall is discussed.

Hanging wall vs footwall faults.

Hanging wall definition the underside of the wall rock overlying a vein or bed of ore. You can hang something from the hanging wall as if it were a ceiling. In an ideal cirque the headwall is semicircular in plan view. The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep greater than 45.

Where the fault plane is sloping as with normal and reverse faults. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping. Cirques tarns u shaped valleys arêtes and horns. Block below is called the footwall.

Before getting into the different types of faults you must understand the difference between a hanging wall and a footwall. In a non vertical fault where the fault plane dips the footwall is the section of the fault that lies under the fault while the hanging wall lies over the fault the names come about from the. The fault strike is the direction of the line of intersection between the fault plane and earth s surface. The hanging wall is the block of rock above the fault line.

The fault plane is where the action is. An arcuate cliff called the headwall. Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. The line it makes on the earth s surface is the fault trace.

This situation however is generally found only in cirques cut into flat plateaus. The main components of a fault are 1 the fault plane 2 the fault trace 3 the hanging wall and 4 the footwall. A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall. As nouns the difference between hangingwall and footwall is that hangingwall is while footwall is geology the section of rock that extends below a diagonal fault line the corresponding upper section being the hanging wall.