Scribd
Upload
15 views10 pages

Geological Features: Unconformities Explained

The document discusses various structural features in geology, focusing on outliers, inliers, and unconformities, which indicate gaps in geological history. It details types of unconformities such as angular, disconformity, nonconformity, local, and regional unconformities, along with their characteristics. Additionally, it highlights the detection methods for unconformities and their engineering implications regarding rock behavior and mechanical properties.

Uploaded by

jd1618764
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
15 views10 pages

Geological Features: Unconformities Explained

The document discusses various structural features in geology, focusing on outliers, inliers, and unconformities, which indicate gaps in geological history. It details types of unconformities such as angular, disconformity, nonconformity, local, and regional unconformities, along with their characteristics. Additionally, it highlights the detection methods for unconformities and their engineering implications regarding rock behavior and mechanical properties.

Uploaded by

jd1618764
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Dr.

Anindita Bhattacharjya

Other structural features:


Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya
Other structural features

❖Outlier:
▪A patch of younger rocks surrounded by older rocks on all
sides.
▪It is formed when a part of a bed or a series of beds gets
separated from the main mass by erosion.

❖Inlier:
▪It is a patch of older strata surrounded by younger strata
on all sides.
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya
❖ Unconformity

▪It is a surface of erosion or non deposition occurring within a sequence of


rocks.

▪It indicates a gap or an interval of time or a hiatus in the geological history of


the area during which normal process of deposition was interrupted.
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya

Types of unconformity:
1. Angular unconformity:

➢ Characterised by different inclinations and structural


features(folded/faulted)above and below the surface of
unconformity.

➢ The sequence above the unconformity indicates younger formations


and the sequence below the unconformity indicates older
formations.
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya

2. Disconformity:
➢ The beds lying below
and above the surface of
erosion(or non deposition)
are almost parallel.

➢Here is no folding /
faulting/ tilting of strata.
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya

3. Nonconformity:
➢ In this case plutonic igneous rocks occurs as older/ underlying rock and
sedimentary/volcanic rocks as the overlying younger rock.

➢Thus this is the surface of contact between the rocks having different mode of
formation.
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya

4. Local unconformity:
➢ When an unconformity is traceable only in a small area.

5. Regional unconformity:
➢When an unconformity is traceable over a large area,
extending from hundreds of kilometers.

Three regional unconformities are recognized in Indian geology:


1. The Eparchean unconformity
2. The post-Vindhyan unconformity
3. The Palaeozoic unconformity
Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya

Overlap

➢This is a gently sloping old land surface which slowly sank below sea
level.

➢When the younger series of rocks were deposited on the older beds,
each new bed encroached more and more on the old land surface.

➢Unconformities of this type are known as Overlap.


Dr. Anindita Bhattacharjya

Detection of unconformity:
1. Angular relations
2. Basal conglomerate
3. Residual soil
4. Difference in fossil record.
5. Diffrence in environment of deposition.
6. Relation to intrusives
7. Difference in grade of metamorphism.

Engineering considerations:
➢ The behavior of rocks above and below the unconformity
show a variation in their mechanical properties.

➢Unconformity marks a weak contact.

➢Unconformity may behave as bedding plane or fault plane


towards forces imposed from above.

You might also like