What is it called when rocks bend?

What is it called when rocks bend?

The bending or breaking of rock is called deformation or strain. If rocks tend to break, they are said to be brittle. If rocks tend to bend without breaking, they are said to be ductile. If a rock bends but is able to return to its original position when the stress is released, it is said to undergo elastic behavior.

What can cause rocks to bend?

When rocks deform in a ductile manner, instead of fracturing to form faults or joints, they may bend or fold, and the resulting structures are called folds. Folds result from compressional stresses or shear stresses acting over considerable time.

What causes rocks to stretch?

Tension stress pulls rocks apart. Tension causes rocks to lengthen or break apart. Tension is the major type of stress found at divergent plate boundaries. Shear stress happens when forces slide past each other in opposite directions (Figure below).

What happens when rocks are stretched?

Tension. Tension (stretching) occurs as tectonic plates are pulled apart and the crust becomes thinner. Rocks near to the surface become faulted, sometimes producing rift valleys, such as the East African Rift shown in the photograph below.

What causes folding?

Folding- Folding occurs when tectonic processes put stress on a rock, and the rock bends, instead of breaking. This can create a variety of landforms as the surfaces of the folded rocks are eroded. Anticlines are folds shaped like an arch, and synclines are shaped like the letter ‘U.

What is a fold in rock that bends downward?

A fold in rock that bends upward into an arch is an anticline. A fold in rock Page 3 that bends downward to form a valley is a syncline.

What are the 3 types of rocks stress?

There are three types of stress: compression, tension, and shear.

Which is an example of sedimentary rocks?

There are three basic types of sedimentary rocks. Clastic sedimentary rocks form from the accumulation and lithification of mechanical weathering debris. Examples include: breccia, conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, and shale. Chemical sedimentary rocks form when dissolved materials preciptate from solution.

Which produces distortion in rocks?

Stress is the force applied to a rock and may cause deformation. The three main types of stress are typical of the three types of plate boundaries: compression at convergent boundaries, tension at divergent boundaries, and shear at transform boundaries. Where rocks deform plastically, they tend to fold.

Do rocks stretch?

As rocks are stressed, they go through stages of deformation. At first, the rock is strained enough that its shape or size may change, but the change is reversible. If you pull it and then let it go, the stretch is reversible because it can go back to its original shape.

How are rocks deformed?

When rocks are compressed, they deform by bending and folding. When a conglomerate, a rock composed of pebbles surrounded by sand or silt is subjected to high temperature and pressure, the pebbles within it are deformed in different ways. They can be flattened, rotated, and even squeezed into long, thin lines.