Chapter Questions
What is tectonic stress? Explain the main types of stress.
Explain the different ways in which rocks can respond to tectonic stress. What factors control the response of rocks to stress?
What is a geologic structure? What are the three main types of structures? What type(s) of rock behavior does each type of structure reflect?
At what type of tectonic plate boundary would you expect to find normal faults?
Explain why folds accommodate crustal shortening.
Draw a cross-sectional sketch of an anticline-syncline pair and label the limbs.
Draw a cross-sectional sketch of a normal fault. Label the hanging wall and the footwall. Use your sketch to explain how a normal fault accommodates crustal extension. Sketch a reverse fault and show how it accommodates crustal shortening.
Explain the similarities and differences between a fault and a joint.
In what tectonic environment would you expect to find a strike-slip fault, a normal fault, and a thrust fault?
What mountain chain has formed at a divergent plate boundary? What are the main differences between this chain and those developed at convergent boundaries? Explain the differences.
Explain why erosion initially causes a mountain range to rise and then eventually causes the peak heights to decrease.
Describe the similarities and differences between an island arc and the Andes. Why do the differences exist?
Describe the similarities and differences between the Andes and the Himalayan chain. Why do the differences exist?
Draw a cross-sectional sketch of an Andean-type plate margin to a depth of several hundred kilometers.
Draw a sequence of cross-sectional sketches showing the evolution of a Himalayan-type plate margin. Why does this type of boundary start out as an Andean-type margin?