DeformationofRock-TulaneUniversity.PDFVIP

Deformation of Rock Page 1 of 18 EENS 1110 Physical Geology Tulane University Prof. Stephen A. Nelson Deformation of Rock This page last updated on 29-Sep-2015 Mount Everest is the highest peak on Earth at 29,028 feet above sea level. The rock at the top of the peak is a marine limestone, deposited on the sea floor about 450 million years ago! This is an amazing fact that begs the question - how did that rock get there? In this discussion we will try to answer that question. The topics we will cover include: Review of Stress and Strain Brittle Deformation – Faults and Joints Ductile deformation – Folds Mountain Building Processes Stress and Strain We start our discussion with a brief review of the concepts of stress and strain. Recall that stress is a force acting on a material that produces a strain. Stress is a force applied over an area and therefore has units of Force/area (like lb/in 2 ). Pressure is a stress where the forces act equally from all directions. If stress is not equal from all directions then we say that the stress is a differential stress. Three kinds of differential stress occur. 1. Tensional stress (or extensional stress), which stretches rock; 2. Compressional stress, which squeezes rock; and 3. Shear stress, which result in slippage and translation. When rocks deform they are said to strain. A strain is a change in size, s