Hanging Wall And Footwall Reverse Fault

A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall.

Hanging wall and footwall reverse fault.

In a reverse fault the hanging wall right slides over the footwall left due to compressional forces. This is the result of tension built up. Plutonism is the result of the magma as it has reached the earth s surface into pre existing rock. This is a landform made from volcanism.

The block below a fault plane is the footwall. Reverse faults are exactly the opposite of normal faults. Reverse faults indicate compressive shortening of the crust. If you imagine undoing the motion of a reverse fault you will undo the compression and thus lengthen the horizontal distance between two points on either side of the fault.

The unloading of the footwall can lead to isostatic uplift and doming of the more ductile material beneath. The hanging wall composed of extended thinned and brittle crustal material can be cut by numerous normal faults. The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep greater than 45. The reverse faults occur when the hanging wall works its way up the footwall.

In a reverse fault the hanging wall block moves up relative to the footwall block. The terminology of normal and reverse comes from coal mining in england where normal faults are the most common. They are common at convergent boundaries. The forces creating reverse faults are compressional pushing the sides together.

2 1 volcanism is the process by which molten rock reaches the earth s surface in order to make new landforms. If the hanging wall rises relative to the footwall you have a reverse fault. These either merge into the detachment fault at depth or simply terminate at the detachment fault surface without shallowing. True the oldest sedimentary rock strata are exposed along the axial parts of deeply eroded anticlines.

The block above is the hanging wall.