Mastering Structural Geology: From Basics to Applications

Learn to measure and record geological structures in the field using compass, clinometer, notebook, and hammer. Master strike, dip, trend, and plunge notation and the symbols used on geological maps.

Identify pre-deformational features to distinguish primary and non-tectonic structures, determine younging direction, and interpret stratigraphic facing, including sedimentary, igneous, evaporitic, and diagenetic contexts.

Unpack deformation forces by outlining normal and shear stresses, principal stresses and their orientations in uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial fields, and relate differential stress to faults, joints, and folds.

Explore how rocks deform under stress, from elastic and brittle to ductile flow. Learn rheology models and factors: temperature, pressure, strain rate, and composition that control depth-dependent faulting and folding.

Build a rock timeline by using relative dating, including superposition, cross-cutting relations, and inclusions, to order deformation events and use marker horizons and unconformities for cross-regional correlation.

Learn to read geologic maps and construct cross-sections that reveal rock units, faults, folds, and strike and dip orientations in 2D and 3D for subsurface interpretation.

Mastering structural geology with stereonets, this lecture teaches plotting planes and lines on a two-dimensional stereonet to analyze folds, faults, and other orientation data.

Explore how rocks respond to stress in structural geology by defining stress and strain, describing principal directions sigma 1 and sigma 3, and using strain ellipses to interpret deformation.

Identify hinge lines and axial planes, classify folds by shape, symmetry, tightness, and orientation, and recognize anticlines, synclines, domes, basins. Interpret deformation history and implications for fluid flow and reservoirs.

Identify faults as fractures with displacement and classify them by movement, including normal, reverse, thrust, strike-slip, and oblique types; recognize them in the field and on maps.

Describe fault geometry with strike, dip, and rake to distinguish slip types and resolve true displacement. Visualize faults on maps and cross-sections, and in 3D, for mapping and reservoir insights.

Discover how veins, fractures, and hydraulic structures form under stress and fluid interaction, classify joints and veins, and reveal their impact on rock permeability, strength, and hydrothermal systems.

Describe fold geometry and classify folds by shape, symmetry, and tightness, using hinge lines, axial planes, and limb dips; visualize folds on maps and in 3D to reveal tectonic history.

Explore the brittle deformation of rocks, distinguishing joints, fractures, and faults, with field indicators like offset strata and slickensides, and classify normal, reverse, strike-slip, and oblique fault types.

Describe fault geometry, including the fault plane, strike, dip, and surface trace. Explain slip types: dip-slip, strike-slip, and oblique-slip; and identify kinematic indicators.

Explore how plate-scale tectonic systems shape crustal structures and structural associations, from divergent margins with normal faults to convergent belts of fold-thrusts and subduction, and transform boundaries with strike-slip faulting.

Explore grain-scale microstructures that reveal how rocks deform under stress, detailing brittle fracturing, cataclastic flow, dislocation creep, and dynamic recrystallization to infer temperature, pressure, and strain rate in tectonic settings.

Measure strain in 2D and 3D using strain ellipses and ellipsoids to interpret deformation geometry, distinguishing homogeneous from heterogeneous strain and strain from stress.

Learn to create balanced cross-sections that restore deformed rocks by unfolding and unfaulting, using line length and area balancing to measure shortening and test interpretations for petroleum and seismic applications.

Explore regional scale structures, crustal blocks and terranes that compose continental architecture and tectonic provinces, tracing plate movements from convergent to transform boundaries.

Synthesize multiscale structural data from grain-scale to continental architecture to interpret tectonic evolution and build three-dimensional geological models across diverse structural styles.