Normal faulting is the dip-slip motion in which the block of crust above an inclined fault plane, the hanging wall, slides downward relative to the block below, the footwall, as the crust is stretched apart under horizontal extension. It is the characteristic faulting style of continental rift zones and mid-ocean ridges, where it produces the alternating uplifted and down-dropped blocks known as horsts and grabens, the East African Rift and the Basin and Range Province of the western United States being classic large-scale examples.
Facts
Timescale
Timescale (category) Timescale (category) Timescale (category) Timescale (category) Process Type TimescaleAn individual rupture is seconds; the fault system itself develops and accumulates displacement over thousands to millions of years. 1 First Proposed Year Connections
Associated With
Shaped
Source Basin and range topography (Wikipedia)
Source Horst (geology) (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Normal Faulting (Wikipedia)
Horst (geology) (Wikipedia)
Shaped: Horst, LeadQuote, Shaped: Horst, Lead
A horst, in physical geography and geology, is a raised fault block bounded by normal faults.
Basin and range topography (Wikipedia)
Shaped: Basin and range topography, Lead paragraph [shaped-by]Quote, Shaped: Basin and range topography, Lead paragraph [shaped-by]
causing it to fracture and create a series of long parallel normal faults
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