Since I graduated at the end of the Fall semester I have had the opportunity to be the TA/Lab Instructor for George Mason’s Structural Geology class. While I could spend a whole post discussing the rewards of being on the other side of the desk I will instead go over one of the prominent topics discussed in the class: stereonets.
For the sake of time I am going to make a large assumption here and proceed like anyone reading this has a basic understanding on what stereonets are and how to use them.
What I am hoping to accomplish with this blog entry is giving step by step instructions on how to find the axial hinge of a fold by using stereonets. Since we create them manually in the lab using Equal Area stereonets and tracing paper, I will explain the steps the same way.
Let’s say we have a fold with the all the necessary parts: two limbs, an axial plane, and the axial hinge. Let’s also say we already have the strike and dip measurements for each limb with Limb A oriented at 225, 66 and Limb B oriented at 016, 50. Here is a picture of just such a fold.
With these two measurements we can determine the orientation of the axial hinge without having to climb inside and attempt to measure that thing upside down.
First we need to plot the two limbs, and knowing that fold limbs are planar features we’ll mark them down as great circles on our stereonet. We start by marking 220 degrees for Limb A.
Next we need to rotate our “tracing paper” so that our 220 mark is oriented to the North. From here we can find our dip measurement of 56 degrees on the horizontal axis, and then draw in the associated great circle.
Super. Now we rotate the tracing paper back to its original position, and our Limb A is plotted.
Now we need to plot Limb B of the fold by following the same process: mark 016 degrees, rotate to North, mark the dip and draw the circle.
Understanding that the axial hinge is the point of maximum curvature or bending in a fold, it is going to be located at the intersection of the two limbs or great circles in this case. Since the intersection of two planes forms a line, we will plot the hinge as a dot on the stereonet.
Here are the two limbs plotted together.
Let’s go ahead and mark the point of intersection between our two circles.
From here we can check the the direction of the hinge by looking at its location on the stereonet. Looks to me like it is trending at 032 degrees. To find out how much the hinge is plunging, if at all, we can rotate our tracing paper one last time to the horizontal axis and measure it there.
According to our stereonet the hinge is about 18 degrees from horizontal. Therefore our antiform is trending 32 degrees from North and plunging 18 degrees. (T&P: 18 –> 032)
I hope this was helpful. If so, maybe I’ll explore some other uses of stereonets later.
Ah the pet store anticline. Good stuff
This actually is not the Pet Store Anticline, but instead one I stumbled across a few years ago in southern Fort Valley. Truth be told, I like this one better.
Yeah I figured that out once I looked at it on the computer instead of the phone
Good stuff. You must be using left-hand rule on strk/dip measurements.
Thanks for posting this Aaron. Just the quick tutorial my students need. And Charles, it looks like the right-hand rule to me.
If the finger points in the direction of strike and the thumb points in direction of dip, then a southerly strike of 220 will dip to the west as is plotted IF you’re using the left-hand to make the L. A right hand would dip to the east. Hence, this looks like left-hand rule to me. What am I missing here?
Hi Charles, in the example the thumb points in the direction of strike, while the fingers point in the dip direction. If you look at the second to last image Limb A is striking SW and dipping NW, while Limb B is striking NNE and dipping SE. Hope that is helpful.