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In physical geography and geology, a horst is a raised fault block bounded by normal faults. [1] Horsts are typically found together with grabens. While a horst is lifted or remains stationary, the grabens on either side subside. [2] This is often caused by extensional forces pulling apart the crust.
The features are created by normal faulting and rifting caused by crustal extension. [1] Horst and graben are formed when normal faults of opposite dip occur in pairs with parallel strike, and are always formed together. Each feature can range in size from a few centimeters up to tens of kilometers, and the vertical displacement can be up to ...
Lifted fault-block geology Tilted fault-block formation in the Teton Range. Fault-block mountains often result from rifting, an indicator of extensional tectonics. These can be small or form extensive rift valley systems, such as the East African Rift zone. Death Valley in California is a smaller example.
With crustal extension, a series of normal faults which occur in groups, form in close proximity and dipping in opposite directions. [4] As the crust extends it fractures in series of fault planes, some blocks sink down due to gravity, creating long linear valleys or basins also known as grabens, while the blocks remaining up or uplifted produce mountains or ranges, also known as horsts.
When a fault block is raised or tilted, a block mountain can result. [17] Higher blocks are called horsts, and troughs are called grabens. A spreading apart of the surface causes tensional forces. When the tensional forces are strong enough to cause a plate to split apart, it does so such that a center block drops down relative to its flanking ...
A downthrown block between two normal faults dipping towards each other is a graben. A block stranded between two grabens, and therefore two normal faults dipping away from each other, is a horst. A sequence of grabens and horsts on the surface of the Earth produces a characteristic basin and range topography.
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Types of faulting. Anderson's theory of faulting, devised by Ernest Masson Anderson in 1905, is a way of classifying geological faults by use of principal stress. [1] [2] A fault is a fracture in the surface of the Earth that occurs when rocks break under extreme stress. [3] Movement of rock along the fracture occurs in faults.