P A R T

I
FUNDAMENTALS

C H A P T E R

N A T U R E OF
STRUCTURAL
GEOLOGY

DEFORMATION OF THE EARTH'S CRUST

The start of any journey into unfamiliar territory is often spurred by
dreaming, a kind of dreaming that spawns not lightheadedness but intense
curiosity and the setting of goals. Our journey will explore the architecture
of the crust of the planet on which we live. We will be concerned primarily
with architectural forms that have developed through deformation as a
response to forces and stresses.
Deformation is a word that is used in several ways. It refers to the
structural changes that take place in the original location, orientation,
shape, and volume of a body of rock. It refers to the physical and chemical
processes that produce the structural changes. And it refers to the geologic
structures that form to accommodate the changes. Any body of rock, no
matter how hard, will deform if the conditions are right. This concept
emerges in historic photographs of a fence line located at the site of the
Hebgen Lake earthquake, a destructive quake that wracked southwesternmost Montana in 1959. As a result of shifts in the ground surface, the
fence was forced to shorten. Where shifts were modest, shortening was
accommodated by bending (Figure 1.1A). But where shortening exceeded
the bending limit of the wooden slats, the fence fractured and splintered
abruptly (Figure 1.1B).
Structural deformation results from stresses (for now, think of "pres
sures") that exceed rock strength. When strength is exceeded, the rock
will fail by brittle (fracture) or ductile (flow) deformation, depending on
how the physical environment has affected the ability of the rock to resist
the stresses. For example, the ability of a rock to withstand stresses
decreases with increasing temperature. Stresses are created in nature in
countless ways: The weight of thousands of meters of sediments within
a depositional basin creates a vertical stress that generally results in the
thinning and compaction of the sediments as they are buried deeper and
deeper. The forceful intrusion of magma can "shoulder aside" rocks and

DEFORMATION OF THE EARTH'S CRUST

Figure I.I
(A) Buckled fence and (B)
broken fence, Hebgen Lake earthquake area,
Montana. Fences, like rocks, respond in
different ways to shortening. (Photograph by
J. R. Stacy. Courtesy of United States
Geological Survey.)

produce folding and faulting or stretching and thinning of the country rock
that is invaded. The cooling of an igneous body, such as a basalt lava
flow, causes shrinkage and contraction expressed in columnar jointing
(Figure 1.2). The slow, steady "head-on" convergence of plates at plate
boundaries produces major fault systems and fold belts, in some cases
raising beds to vertical orientations (Figure 1.3). The spreading apart of
plates along the oceanic ridges stretches the oceanic crust by faulting,
rifting, and the injection of swarms of dikes. Where tectonic plates slide
past one another, such as along the San Andreas fault in California, the
buildup of stress results in sudden punctuated movement announced by
earthquakes. The gravitational collapse of volcanoes above evacuated
magma chambers can produce enormous craterlike calderas, like Crater
Lake in Oregon (Figure 1.4).
Stresses that cause deformation generally build slowly but persistently,
but in some situations incredibly high stresses "just show up." We have
in mind Meteor Crater, located in northern Arizona, where asteroid impact
created a bull's-eye of deformational destruction (Figure 1.5A). The now-

Figure 1.2 Columnar joints formed in

basalt, exposed at San Miguel Regla, Hidalgo,
Mexico. (Photograph by C. Fries. Courtesy
of United States Geological Survey.)

CHAPTER I

NATURE OF STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY

Figure 1.3 Steeply inclined limestone beds

of Cretaceous age in the Central Andes east
of Lima, Peru. The lake in the foreground is
at an elevation of 14,000 ft (over 4 km);
rocks in the background reach 18,000 ft
(over 5 km). The limestone beds were
originally deposited below sea level!
(Photograph by G. H. Davis.)

upturned, pervasively fractured and distorted sedimentary rocks never

knew what hit them (Figure 1.5B), as revealed by the telltale presence of
a peculiar microscopic mineral texture aptly named "shocked" quartz
(Figure 1.5C).

ARCHITECTURE AND STRUCTURES

Jacob Bronowski (1973), in his superb set of essays entitled The Ascent
of Man, suggests that our conception of science today is a description
and exploration of the underlying structures of nature, and he points
out that words like "structure," "pattern," "plan," "arrangement," and
"architecture" constantly occur in every description that we try to make.
He believes:

The notion of discovering an underlying order in matter is man's basic concept

for exploring nature. The architecture of things reveals a structure below the
surface, a hidden grain, which when it is laid bare, makes it possible to take
natural formations apart. . . . (From The Ascent of Man by J. Bronowski, p. 95.
Published with permission of Little, Brown and Company, Boston, copyright
1973.)
Bronowski's remarks apply beautifully to structural geology, which can
be most succinctly defined as the study of the architecture of the Earth's
crust, insofar as it has resulted from deformation (Billings, 1972, p. 2).
The expression "architecture of the Earth" is very appropriate because
structural geology addresses the form, symmetry, geometry, and certainly
the elegance and artistic rendering of the components of the Earth's crust
on all scales (Figure 1.6). At the same time, structural geology focuses
on the strength and mechanical properties of crustal materials, both at
the time of their deformation and now.
Although architecture and structural geology have much in common,
the challenges of the architect and the structural geologist are quite differ
ent. The architect designs a structure, perhaps a building or a bridge,

ARCHITECTURE A N D STRUCTURES

Figure 1.4 (A) Eruptive formation of

prehistoric volcano, Mount Mazama. (6)
Caldera collapse of the volcanic edifice into
the emptied magma chamber. (C) Lake forms
within the caldera structure. A t the center of
the lake minor eruptions build a small cinder
cone, part of which (not shown) is Wizard
Island. [Drawing by Charles R. Bacon.
Courtesy of United States Geological Survey
(1988).]

CHAPTER I

NATURE OF STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY

Figure 1.5 (A) Oblique aerial photo

of Meteor Crater, Arizona.
(Photograph and copyright by Peter
Kresan). (6) Diagrammatic
representation of the formation of
Meteor Crater, and the accompanying
upturning of formerly horizontal strata.
[After Shoemaker (1979), fig. 4, p.
I I.] (C) Shocked quartz collected
from Meteor Crater. The rock,
derived from the Coconino Sandstone,
is 75% quartz, 20% coesite, and 5%
glass. The light-colored quartz grains
are deformed to fit into a mosaic.
Individual quartz grains are close to 0.1
mm in diameter. The black opaque
areas and the medium gray areas are
the main regions of coesite and
stishovite. (Photomicrograph by Susan
Kieffer).

giving due attention to function, appearance, geometry, material, size,

strength, cost, and other such factors. Then the architect supervises the
process of construction daily, or perhaps weekly, making changes where
necessary. In the end, the architect may be the only person who is aware
of discrepancies between the original plan and the final product.
In contrast, the structural geologist is greeted in nature by what looks
like a finished product, like the structural product shown in Figure 1.7,
and is challenged to ask a number of questions. What is the structure?
What starting materials were used? What is the geometry of the structure?
How did the materials change shape during deformation? What was the
source of the stresses that caused the deformation? And what was the
sequence of steps in construction? Attempts to answer these questions
generate even more questions. When was the job done? How long did it
take? What were the temperature and pressure conditions? How strong
were the materials? And, why "on earth" was it done?
The complexity of interpreting natural systems hit home to me in the
reflections of a small pool I encountered amid dense underbrushwithin
the bush of eastern Canada. Rock exposure is poor in this region, and
thus clues regarding structural history are meager. Yet the surface waters
of this pool were marked by foam patterns that conveyed geological in
sight. Delicately fashioned, these patterns resembled the layering of rocks
deformed under hot, deep conditionsexactly the kind of rocks that are
exposed in the immediately surrounding area. This pool became my oneday laboratory. Patterns of movement on the surface of the pool were
both complex and ever-changing. Seeing the patterns come and go, my
mind shifted to what would happen to these structures when winter set
in. Some single pattern would be frozen; one of an infinite number of
patterns would be preserved; and yet, that pattern might or might not be
representative of the kinds of motion I had watched. I began to realize
more fully that every geologic record we examine is but one out of millions
of possible frozen records, stop-action points, tiny scenarios from a much
longer and more complex drama that we never will know in full.
I was reminded of all this later in Utah when I looked down into a pool
beneath a bridge and saw flow patterns of the same kind (Figure 1.8). But
this time, the pattern carried more symbolism. The ordered patterns,

Figure 1.6 White House Ruin in Canyon

de Chelly, Arizona, a sublime blend of the
architecture of nature and that of the
Ancient Ones. (Photograph by G. H. Davis.)

Figure 1.7 Geologist confronting the

structure of nature, in this case an exfoliation
jointing in granite near Shuteye Peak in the
Sierra Nevada. (Photograph by N. K. Huber.
Courtesy of United States Geological
Survey.)

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CHAPTER I

NATURE OF STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY

Figure 1.8 Deformed foam layers in a

Rocky Mountain pool. Paper cup (upper right
corner) is being blown by the wind from
right to left, while the water is being pulled
by gravity toward the lower right.
(Photograph by G. H. Davis.)

guided ultimately by the flow of water under the compelling tug of gravity,
were being modified simultaneously by the competing movement of a
paper cup, blown by the wind, superimposing the imprint of its wake. In
similar fashion, we see in matters of geologic record the complex, interfer
ing effects of competition among the agents of gravity, heat, and tectonic
stress in fashioning architectural form. And we see in the paper cup the
influence we humans have on the natural environment.

PLATE TECTONICS AND STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY

Plate tectonics provides an essential backdrop for understanding the sig
nificance of structures, especially regional structures. It is the basis for
understanding the dynamic circumstances that give rise to deformational
movements. Plate interactions create rock-forming environments, which
in turn give rise to the fundamental, original properties of regional rock
assemblages. Furthermore, plate motions, both during and after the con
struction of regional rock assemblages, generate the stresses that impart
to rocks their chief deformational characteristics.
Plate motions in the past have been responsible for shaping orogenic
belts (or simply orogens), which are long, broad, and generally linear to
arcuate belts in the Earth's crust where extreme mechanical deformation
and/or thermal activity are concentrated. The Appalachians, Alps, Andes,
and Himalayas are examples. Major regional structures abound in orogens,
and these reflect systematic distortion (i.e., change in shape) of the crust
in which the structures are found. Mountain systems are a physiographic
expression of orogenic belts, but the presence of mountains is not integral
to our view of an orogen. Ancient orogens, still recognizable as sites of
regional distortion, are beveled to flatlands in the interior of continents.
And of the presently forming orogens, the structurally interesting parts
may not lie in the mountains, but instead may be 10, 50, or even 700 km
below the Earth's surface. In this perspective, mountains, if they exist at
all, are just the roofline of an orogen.
The generally accepted view among geologists today is that orogenic
belts evolve through the interference of slowly moving rigid plates com-