What is stress?
A force that squeezes or pulls crust rock. It adds energy to tectonic plates continuously. The energy is stored, until the stone eventually changes shape (or breaks).
3 types of stress:
Tension: pulls apart the plates, making the rock in the middle thin. It’s caused by two plates separating.
Compression: tectonic plates are squeezed together – they either fold or break. It’s caused by one plate pushing the other.
Shearing: two masses of rock slip in opposite directions. This causes the rock to either change shape or break and slip apart.
Stress can cause faults, which changes the physical features of the land. Faults are caused when too much stress builds up in a rock until it breaks. Most faults are on plate boundaries, where the forces either push or pull at the rock on the crust until it breaks.
3 types of faults:
Normal faults: happens when tension pulls rocks apart. Breaks at an angle – where one rock slides up and the other goes down.
Reverse faults: is caused when the earth’s crust is pushed together through compression.
Strike-slip faults: same thing as normal fault – the blocks move in opposite directions. It’s cuased by shearing tectonic plates.
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