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froggtongue · M
Matt85 · 36-40, M
@froggtongue Same. I have no idea sorry.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@froggtongue @Matt85
The fault is actually a plane, well two really: large areas.
A fault "line" is simply the geometrical trace of the intersection of the fault with the land surface.
In the photograph we are looking down the fault-plane, where the rock has split apart and the two plates are pulling away from each other.
How deep? This one is a plate-boundary so although mainly filled with upwelling magma as we see there, as deep as the ocean-floor / Icelandic crust at that point, a few tens of kilometres.
Being able to seeing both walls of a fault, as we do there, is rare; but faults in general are very common and most are not pull-apart features like that,
The Thingvellir fault is of the fractured rock being forced apart, but much more commonly they result in the rock on one side having been raised or lowered against that of the other side, of the fracture. The fracture does not open, but it can give pronounced, steep steps in the landscape.
In others, and I think the notorious San Andreas Fault is one such, the rocks are sheared and pushed horizontally past each other.
Thank you for showing us the photograph!
The fault is actually a plane, well two really: large areas.
A fault "line" is simply the geometrical trace of the intersection of the fault with the land surface.
In the photograph we are looking down the fault-plane, where the rock has split apart and the two plates are pulling away from each other.
How deep? This one is a plate-boundary so although mainly filled with upwelling magma as we see there, as deep as the ocean-floor / Icelandic crust at that point, a few tens of kilometres.
Being able to seeing both walls of a fault, as we do there, is rare; but faults in general are very common and most are not pull-apart features like that,
The Thingvellir fault is of the fractured rock being forced apart, but much more commonly they result in the rock on one side having been raised or lowered against that of the other side, of the fracture. The fracture does not open, but it can give pronounced, steep steps in the landscape.
In others, and I think the notorious San Andreas Fault is one such, the rocks are sheared and pushed horizontally past each other.
Thank you for showing us the photograph!
