The study of how rocks deform — folded, fractured, tilted, and faulted by the stresses of tectonics. This section holds reference material and working tools for reading orientation data, folds, and faults in the field or from a map.
A quick refresher on the vocabulary the tools below build on.
Strike is the compass bearing of a horizontal line on a planar surface; dip is the angle that surface plunges below horizontal, measured perpendicular to strike.
Explore Strike & Dip →Ductile bending of layered rock. Anticlines arch upward with the oldest beds in the core; synclines sag downward with the youngest beds in the core.
Explore Folds (anticline, syncline, chevron…) →Fractures with measurable displacement. This example shows a normal fault: three continuous strata offset by the hanging wall dropping relative to the footwall.
Explore Faults (normal, reverse, strike-slip…) →A lower-hemisphere projection used to plot lines and planes as points and curves, so 3D orientation data can be compared and analysed on paper.
Explore Stereonets →All run entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded anywhere.