Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Foliation & Lineation

This week I'll be heading out to do more research with Dr. Dinklage, this time out in the Pequop Mountains in Nevada. We will be working with more metamorphic rocks. One characteristic that some metamorphic rock may contain is foliation and lineation. They are defined as follows: Foliation - The arrangement of a set of minerals in parallel, sheet-like layers that lie perpendicular to the flattened plane of a rock. Occurs in metamorphic rocks on which directed pressure has been exerted. Lineation - Minerals that are linear or have been positioned or deformed in the same direction due to stress and strain. These characteristics occur because tremendous amounts of force deform the rocks during an orogeny, or mountain building. Heat and pressure are what determine how a rock will deform. It could become low grade (little metamorphism) to high grade (great metamorphism).

1 Comments:

At 11:09 PM, Blogger Ethan said...

Just wondering if you know how to determine whether is safe to build houses on top of the metamorphic rocks and what are the advantage and disadvantage of these rocks?

 

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