Some basic ideas.

Basic principles - rock organisation

Mountain belts formed by continental collision, rifting basins - the repositories of natural resources, active faults and their earthquake hazards, slow-flowing rocks and plate tectonics - all issues for structural geology. But it can be a bewildering as well as exciting subject. There are lots of complicated rock geometries that require a three dimensional picture - well 4D really because we need to think about how geology works through time. In this web resource we build up some basic concepts.

Styles of deformation

A simple account of the different ways a material might deform.

Primary structures

Notes on the organisation of rocks without tectonics - because if we want to understand deformed rocks we should have an idea of what they looked like before.

New shapes

The record of distortions in grains

Measuring

How to record the orientation of structures - using a compass-clinometer

Time - the fourth dimension

Some notes on building up a geological history.

Learning structure home page

September 2003