Fault Hanging Wall Footwall

When the fault plane is vertical there is no hanging wall or footwall.

Fault hanging wall footwall.

Mainly because the names hanging wall and footwall were named by miners who weren t trying to be cute. 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. Most faults broken places are essentially inclined planes like this. The underlying block of a fault having an inclined fault plane.

The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep greater than 45. The mass of rock underlying a mineral deposit in a mine. The dip of a fault plane is its angle of inclination measured from the horizontal. The block below is called the footwall.

The line it makes on the earth s surface is the fault trace. The fault strike is the direction of the line of intersection between the fault plane and earth s surface. Quite often the ore that a miner wants to get to is sitting right on that inclined plane the ore is in the fault. The main components of a fault are 1 the fault plane 2 the fault trace 3 the hanging wall and 4 the footwall.

It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping. A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall. The terminology of normal and reverse comes from coal mining in england where normal faults are the most common. In fault fault plane is called the hanging wall or headwall.

Draw a normal and reverse fault label the hanging wall and footwall for each also show how they move for each fault. The fault plane is where the action is. The block below is called the footwall. 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.

Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. American heritage dictionary of the english language fifth edition.