Answer 2:
A reverse fault is any fault in which the hanging wall - that is, the fault block that is above the plane of the fault - is elevated relative to the foot wall, which is the fault block below the plane of the fault. Thrust faults are reverse faults, but specifically they are reverse faults that happen during compression, when plates or portions of plates collide. Thrust faults I'm not sure have a precise definition, but the things that we normally think of as thrust faults, namely the brittle form of the buckling that makes the first type of mountain belt that I described above (as opposed to ductile buckling, a.k.a. folding), are basically low-angle reverse faults. Click Here to return to the search form.
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