Reverse Fault Hanging Wall And Footwall

If we hold the foot wall stationary where would the hanging wall go if we reversed gravity.

Reverse fault hanging wall and footwall.

Where the fault plane is sloping as with normal and reverse faults the upper side is the hanging wall and the lower side is the footwall. Its also called a reverse fault because a normal fault has the foot wall going up and the hanging wall. The main components of a fault are 1 the fault plane 2 the fault trace 3 the hanging wall and 4 the footwall. You probably noticed that the blocks that move on either side of a reverse or normal fault slide up or down along a dipping fault surface.

When movement along a fault is the reverse of what you would expect with normal gravity we call them reverse faults. Strike slip faults have a different type of movement than normal and reverse faults. This is the result of tension built up. The fault plane is where the action is.

The hanging wall composed of extended thinned and brittle crustal material can be cut by numerous normal faults. 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 reverse faults occur when the hanging wall works its way up the footwall. This is a landform made from volcanism.

The line it makes on the earth s surface is the fault trace. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping. The hanging wall will slide upwards right. The movement along the thrust fault is the foot wall goes down and the hanging wall goes up.

Plutonism is the result of the magma as it has reached the earth s surface into pre existing rock. 2 1 volcanism is the process by which molten rock reaches the earth s surface in order to make new landforms. The unloading of the footwall can lead to isostatic uplift and doming of the more ductile material beneath.