SandboxLab.docVIP

Sandbox Experiments Observing, Sketching and Synthesizing Sometimes there is not much happening at the beginning of the experiment (especially under contraction) but then once things start, a lot happens at once. Once the faults and folds become apparent students can sketch what they see at every few turns of the crank. These sketches will help them compare the deformation at different times of the fault system development. After theirs sketch are completed you can follow up by asking student to compare early and later sketches from one experiment and also sketches from different experiments. They can also write up their observations into a report of one or two paragraphs. Some questions that the students can consider as they write are: Do 5 faults form at one time or do they develop one after the other? Does the newest fault always develop farthest from the moveable wall? Did the pattern of fault development look the same under extension as it did under contraction? This process of observing, sketching and then synthesizing is exactly the process that geologists use all the time in the field and in the laboratory. Measuring Fault Geometry The orientation of geologic faults is described by taking two measurements, the strike of the faults, which describes their trend/orientation, and the dip of the faults, which describes their attitude. In sandbox experiments the strike of the faults will parallel the moveable wall. This won’t change under extension or contraction. The dip of the faults (i.e. how steep or shallow the faults are) will change with different loading conditions. At each stage where students are making a sketch the students can use a protractor to measure the angle between horizontal and the fault planes (need a figure). Vertical faults have a dip of 90? and horizontal faults have a dip of 0?. You can ask students if each of the newest faults at each stage has the same dip. Does the dip of the old faults stay the same or do these faults rotate a bi