Chapter 1

Measurement: What and How

Introduction
The purpose of the laboratory portion of most structural geology courses is
to learn how to define quantitatively the geometry of deformed rocks. Further-
more, we would like to develop the tools to allow us to convert, easily and precisely,

between the geometries of rock bodies at two different times in their history. These
times may be the present, deformed, state and the initial, undeformed state or the
two times may capture only a small part of the rock's history. Finally, the lab should
lay the groundwork for at least a basic understanding of mechanics. All of these
goals require that the structural geologist be very precise about geometry and the
coordinate systems used to define the geometry, so that is where we will start.

Primitive Geometric Objects

Rocks are composed of linear and planar elements: bedding and secondary
foliations such as cleavage can be defined, at least locally, by planes whereas things
CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

like fold axes, mineral lineations, and paleocurrent directions are lines. It turns out
that, because there is one line oriented perpendicular to any particular plane, all
planes can also be represented by their corresponding perpendicular line which is
known as the normal or the pole to a plane.
The previous paragraph is an oversimplification because, in the vast majority
of cases, all of these lines have a direction in which they point. The paleocurrent,
for example, flowed towards a particular direction. The pole to bedding can point
in either the direction in which strata become younger or become older. The direc-
tion matters and thus our geological lines commonly have an arrowhead and tail;
that is, they are a geometric and mathematical quantity known as a vector. In
some cases, we care about the length, or magnitude, of our vector as in the case
of the displacement of a fault or the thickness of a stratigraphic unit. But in many
other cases, we only care about its orientation in space. We will use vectors exten-
sively in subsequent chapters but before we can do that there are some more basic
things to address: how do we measure lines and planes and what coordinate systems
do we use, because it is impossible to talk about vectors without reference to a co-
ordinate systems.

Data Collection

Instruments Used in the Field

Traditionally, a structural geologist used a geological compass/clinometer to
measure the orientation of features of interest. These are precision analog instru-
ments that enable the geologist to measure the orientation of a feature of interest
to within a degree or less. The Brunton Pocket Transit (Fig. 1.1), most commonly
used in North America, excels at taking taking bearings — horizontal angles mea-
sured with respect to North — and inclinations — angles in a vertical plane mea-
sured with respect to the horizontal — over long distances; thus the word "transit"
in its formal name, though most people just refer to it as a "Brunton compass". In
Europe and other parts of the world, a Freiberg compass is more common. This
type of instrument is less suitable for sighting bearings over long distances but is
very efficient at measuring planar and linear features by placing the top or edge of
the compass flush against the rock.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

Precision analog compasses have

been around for centuries but it is likely
that, within a few years, they will largely be
replaced by digital devices, most commonly
in the form of smart phone programs or
apps. Most smart phones contain ac-
celerometers, gyroscopes, and electronic
magnetometers which enable apps to de-
termine the exact orientation in space. Ad- Figure 1.1 — Two ways of measuring
the orientations of geological lines and
ditionally, such devices also keep accurate planes. Smartphone app (FieldMove
track of the time and date and can deter- Clino from Midland Valley) on left and
traditional Brunton Compass on right.
mine their position every accurately using
the Global Positioning System (GPS) as well
as triangulation on cell phone towers and wireless networks. Thus, one can hypo-
thetically capture a large number of measurements quickly using a compass app on
a smart phone. Several such apps are already available for iOS and Android oper-
ating systems and, with proper calibration, can yield excellent results. To date, most
smart phone compass apps for geological use have taken to mimicking analog com-
passes and thus use the same terminology and coordinate system. There is a great
deal of room for innovation in this space and it is likely that future apps will pro-
vide substantially more information. As a simple example, it is not possible to mea-
sure directly the pole to a plane with a traditional analog compass; the geologist
must do a simple calculation in the field or more likely back in the office to get this
value. A smart phone app, however can instantaneously calculate, record, and dis-
play this value in the field. The approach that this manual takes to structural geolo-
gy lab will enable you to take advantage of data from this new digital world.

Measuring Lines and Planes

Both types of compasses and most smart phone compass apps measure bear-
ings or azimuths clockwise with respect to the rotation axis of the Earth, i.e., north,
and the angle downward or upward from the horizontal. The previous sentence has
several important assumptions built in that are seldom explicitly stated: what is our
coordinate system and what are the conventions used to indicate whether a number

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

vertical plane upward pole or Figure 1.2 — Orientations

normal vector
of lines and planes. Lines
are defined by their az-
imuth or bearing — the an-
gle with respect to North
N
horizontal plane measured in a horizontal
plane — and their plunge,
trend
and angle measured
rik
e downwards from the hori-
st
zontal in a vertical plane.
e
rak e line A Likewise, planes are repre-
plung
sented by the orientation
of a horizontal line within
dip the plane (the strike) and a
vertical angle (the dip). Al-
ternatively, you can specify
the orientation of a plane
by its dip direction and dip,
or the trend and plunge of
its pole.

is positive or negative? Traditionally in structural geology, horizontal angles are

positive measured clockwise from North and vertical angles are measured positive
downwards. If you think about it for a minute, this is just the opposite of the con-
vention that you use when you make a graph or plot data on a map. Graphs follow
an engineering convention where angles are measured positive up from the x-axis
(i.e., counterclockwise) and on maps, elevations are positive upward and depths are
negative! The point is, it doesn't matter what convention you choose as long as you
are clear and consistent. In a subsequent chapter, we will learn how to change from
one convention and corresponding coordinate system to another, an operation that
will help us solve lots of interesting problems.
A plane can be defined by the azimuth of a horizontal line contained within
it, known as the strike and the maximum angle measured downward from the hor-
izontal to the plane, a quantity knows as the dip (Fig. 1.2). The azimuth of the dip
— that is, the projection of the dip onto the horizontal — is known as the dip di-
rection or dip azimuth. The true dip direction is always 90° from the strike. The
most convenient way to think of the strike line is to imagine the plane half-sub-
merged in a body of water. Because the surface of the water is necessarily horizon-
tal, the waterline on the plane is a horizontal line in the plane (Fig. 1.3).

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

Figure 1.3 — The strike

ike
visualized as the water
str line on an inclined plane
partially submerged in
water.

water body

Figure 1.4 — True dip

t dip
aren
stri
ke
d of a
pp
nt d
ip and apparent dip. True
tren are
app dip is the largest angle
between the horizontal
e! and the plane of inter-
ri k
st
lt
o est (left block). Appar-
true lle
dip ts
pa
ra
ent dip is the angle be-
cu
p
in tween the horizontal
di

p ar
e nt
and the plane observed
ap
no in a vertical cut parallel
to the trend of the ap-
parent dip (expanded
true right block). The appar-
dip
ent dip in cuts parallel
to the strike is zero.

The dip deserves further consideration. Let’s say that you are studying a ver-
tical road cut in a region where the rocks have a uniform strike and dip. The orien-
tation of the road cut will determine what you see: if the road cut is parallel to the
strike, then the strata will appear to be flat because the strike is a horizontal line in
the plane of bedding (Fig. 1.4, left block). If the road cut is perpendicular to strike,
then you will see the true dip of bedding. At any other orientation of the road cut,
you will see an apparent dip of bedding, which is always less than the true dip
(Fig. 1.4, right block). Problems involving apparent dips are extremely common in
structural geology. In subsequent chapters, we will learn quantitative methods for

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

N
15°

0°
15
=
ke
Figure 1.5 Conventions for

ra
how to specify the orienta-
tions of two planes that
share the same strike line.

line A
Specifying the rake of a line
45°
30° is also given. Stick figure is
looking away from the
reader and holding out his/
her right hand. Avoid using
Plane 1!
1 Format
Format! Plane 2!
2 Line A rake!
rake
W
N 15 E, 45 W! Quadrant
Quadrant! E
N 15 E, 30 E! SE
30 SE!
the quadrant format!
015, 45 WW! Azimuth
Azimuth! 015, 30 E
E! 150
150!
195, 45
45! Right-hand Rule
Rule! 015, 30
30! 150
150!
285, 45
45! Dip
Dip direction & Dip! 105, 30

calculation of true dip from two apparent dips or apparent dip given true dip and
apparent dip direction but for now a little practice in visualization is in order.
The specification of a strike and dip for a plane is subject to a number of po-
tential ambiguities that do not plague the dip direction and dip format. Which di-
rection of the strike line do you use? How do you make sure that the plane dips in
the correct direction? Because in the past structural geologists have tried to ac-
commodate all possible combinations of strike direction and dip direction — that is
they did not settle upon a standard and stick to it — a number of inefficient and
potentially error-prone formats have sprung up (Fig. 1.5). The “quadrant” format is
perhaps the worst offender: one must write down (correctly!) a combination of five
numbers and letters such as “N 47 W, 22 S”. The student is strongly encouraged
not to use this format even though you will need to know how to read it. On can
eliminate two letters simply by using the azimuth of the horizontal bearing: 313, 22
S. In this book, we will use either dip direction/dip or more commonly a format
known as the right hand rule (RHR). Using the RHR, one gives the strike direc-
tion such that the dip is to the right when looking in the direction of the strike az-

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

imuth (Fig. 1.5)1. Thus, we can further reduce the plane orientation given previous-
ly to: 133, 22.
The orientation of a line is also specified by a horizontal azimuth, or trend,
defined by the projection of the line onto the horizontal plane and the plunge, a
vertical angle measured from the horizontal downwards to the line (Fig. 1.2). Note
that for lines, or vectors, where the the arrowhead points upwards, their plunge has
a negative value. There are many times in geology when we are interested in lines
that are contained within planes: for example, a paleocurrent direction in sedimen-
tary bedding or slickensides on a fault plane. In these cases, it is often most conve-
nient to measure the angle between the strike of the plane and the line of interest,
which is known as the rake or pitch (Figs. 1.2, 1.5). Although strikes and trends are
measured in horizontal planes and dips and plunges in vertical planes, the rake is
commonly measured in an inclined plane. Traditionally, the rake has been mea-
sured from either end of the strike line, yielding two possible values, with the cor-
rect value identified by give the general quadrant direction. This is a recipe for con-
fusion! The convention followed here is that the rake is always measured from the
given strike azimuth and thus varies between 0 and 180°.
There are several ways to measure the orientations of lines and planes. The
two most common have their origins in the unique capabilities of the two types of
compasses mentioned earlier: Freiberg compasses, as well as certain modern ver-
sions of the Brunton compass, can measure dip and dip direction in a single opera-
tion. To measure a plane, the top cover of the compass is rotated so that it is flush
against the rock layer. An air bubble is brought to the center of the bullseye level on
the face of the compass, ensuring that the compass face defines a horizontal plane.
The geologist can then read the dip azimuth of the plane from the number that the
North needle points at on the face of the compass. The vertical angle that repre-
sents the dip is read directly off a scale on the side of the compass.
If one is using a traditional Brunton compass, a different approach is used:
First, the side edge of the main part of the compass is placed on the rock and ad-

1 Two other reasons for using the RHR will be seen in a later chapter: (a) the strike, true dip, and pole (SDP) define a
right handed cartesian coordinate system that is convenient for solving problems related to bedding; and (b) double
couple focal mechanisms of earthquakes are commonly giving using the Aki-Richards convention where the plane is
specified using RHR and the sign of the rake gives the sense of slip (positive for thrust faulting and negative for
normal faulting.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

justed by rotating it until the bullseye level is level. One can then read the strike of
the plane as the number to which the north arrow points. It takes a second opera-
tion to measure the dip angle: the side edge of the compass is placed flush on the
rock so that the brass arm of the compass points either up or down dip. The lever
on the back side of the compass is then rotated until the bar level is horizontal and
the dip value (or apparent dip value) read off of the clinometer scale on the face of
the compass.

Uncertainties
Of course, rocks seldom define perfectly smooth planes or exactly straight
lines. They have irregularities that can be quite significant. Several field methods
have been developed for dealing with this fact. Students are commonly admonished
to place a field book or other non-magnetic planar object on the surface of the
plane to be measured to smooth out the irregularities. Using a more advanced field
technique, the geologist positions themselves so that their eye is in the plane of
bedding and they see the plane “edge-on”. They then set the clinometer of a Brun-
ton-style compass to horizontal and sight through the hole in the mirror to located
a horizontal line in the plane. Finally, they take a bearing on the horizontal line in
the plane to get the strike. This method does a better job of smoothing out the ir-
regularities at the scale of the entire outcrop and can also be used to measure a
plane’s orientation where one cannot physically access the plane (e.g., across a roar-
ing river or a busy six lane highway). It does, however, take considerable practice to
master!
Without knowing why one is measuring the plane in the first place, it is im-
possible to know which is the best method to use. For a regional mapping job, one
commonly wants the best orientation at the scale of the entire outcrop. On the oth-
er hand, the variations, themselves, maybe the subject of study as for example
where one is trying to define asperities on a fault plane. However, the scale-invari-
ant nature of irregularities in any natural surface or linear feature means that,
whatever the scale of the problem being addressed, the measurement of its orienta-
tion will not be perfect.

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In addition to natural irregulari-

In past times and even today, some structur-
ties, there are other reasons why it is al geologists acknowledge(d) that their strike
impossible to define the “correct” strike and dip measurements were “only good to
and dip of the plane. Two different ge- about 5°” and thus they would round their
ologists may use slightly different dip values on their maps to the nearest five
methods for measuring a line or plane degree increments. It is relatively easy to tell
on a published map when they did this even
and even the same geologist who makes
though it is seldom stated explicitly because
multiple measurements of the same
all of the dips on the map end in either a 0
plane at the same location will come up or a 5! Needless to say, this is a poor substi-
with a range of values because of tute for actually determining the natural
seemingly trivial changes in measure- variation in our measurements, and even
ment methodology. Thus, ideally one stating that a dip is 33±5° is better than
would make multiple measurements of recording the dip as “35°”. Maps with strike
and dip value recorded to the nearest 5°
a plane or a line and average them.
leave something to be desired!
That way, although we cannot state
with certainty what the “correct” orien-
tation is, we could at very least come up with the best estimate of the orientation
and even use standard statistical techniques to calculate the uncertainty (standard
deviation) in the orientation. We will do exactly that in a following chapter.
The uncertainties we have discussed so far are of the type known as ran-
dom, uncorrelated errors (Fig. 1.6a, b). There is no way to predict whether the
next measurement will be higher or lower than the previous one or, within some
range, by how much. They result from stochastic variations in natural features
and our own inability to measure them accurately. These errors are amenable to
calculation of a mean and a standard deviation (which we will do in the next chap-
ter). The smaller the uncertainty, for these types of errors, the more reliable the re-
sult. Non-random or correlated errors are an entirely different beast (Fig. 1.6c,
d). Take for example, the geologist who unwittingly measured a bunch of strikes
and dips near a large magnetic body or with the declination set incorrectly on his
or her compass. In the case of nonrandom errors, even though the statistics might
be good (e.g., Fig. 1.6c), the results will be crummy.
This discussion brings up two important terms: accuracy and precision. Ac-
curate means that our measurements are a reasonably good representation of the

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Random
small large
(a) (b) Figure 1.6 — Illustration of the
difference between random and
systematic errors. Each dia-
gram shows a target with a
small

number of shots. Note that, in

this case, we know what the
“right” answer was (i.e., the
center of the target) and there-
Systematic

fore the systematic error is

clear. In the natural features
that we study, we don’t know
(c) (d) what the right answer is (i.e.,
there is no target) and thus we
can evaluate whether the ran-
dom errors are large or small
large

but we cannot evaluate the sys-

tematic errors. Based on a con-
cept by Taylor (1997).

true value, even if we can never know exactly what the true value is. Precise, on
the other hand, means that a measurement has been made with instruments that
record the observation to a large number of significant figures. Ideally, our mea-
surements should be both accurate and precise (Fig. 1.6a). Even experienced scien-
tists, however, often fall into the trap of thinking that because a measurement is
precise, it must also be accurate; that is a fallacy. In the case of nonrandom errors,
our measurement can be very precise but not very accurate (Fig. 1.6c). Earlier in
this chapter, we mentioned the advent of data collection via digital devices such as
smart phones. With any digital device, however, one must be careful to acknowl-
edge that, although the answer produced is precise, its accuracy must not be as-
sumed but proven. Digital sampling systems are highly subject to nonrandom er-
rors!

Graphical Representation of Orientation Data

There are two fundamental ways that structural geologists display their ori-
entation data with quantitative rigor. In maps, we are concerned about both orien-
tation and the spatial relation of one feature to another. In the second type, stereo-

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

Horizontal Surface

Figure 1.7 — Map as a projection onto the horizontal surface. In this case,
we show contour lines (lines of equal elevation) on an oblique view of the
topography and projected onto a horizontal surface

graphic projections, commonly called stereonets, we are just concerned with ori-
entations, alone.

Maps
Geological maps are one of the most fundamental, original data sources in
our profession. They show the distribution, known and inferred, of rock units on
the surface of the earth, the nature of contacts separating them (e.g., stratigraphic,
unconformities, intrusive contacts, faults), and are the basic way that we evaluate
the distribution and geometry of deformed rock layers. Maps commonly show
strike and dip symbols in the layered units, and may show the orientations of sec-
ondary structures such as cleavage, lineations, and joints. A map is a formal scien-
tific document and should be treated as such.
All maps are a projection of features that lie on the irregular, but approxi-
mately spherical, surface of the earth onto a horizontal plane (Fig. 1.7). This has an
immediate practical implication: when you measure a distance on a map (i.e., a
map distance), it is a horizontal distance not the longer distance that you actually

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

slo
pe
dis
tan Figure 1.8 — Map distance, slope dis-
Change in ce tance, and slope angle. The slope dis-
elevation tance is always larger than or equal to
slope the map distance.
angle

map distance

travel along a slope (i.e., the slope distance; Fig. 1.8). The slope angle is mea-
sured between the slope and the horizontal and is usually calculated by:

⎛ Δ elevation ⎞
" slope angle = tan −1 ⎜
⎝ map distance ⎟⎠

where Δ means “change in”. A related measure of steepness of slope is the percent
grade, which you are likely to have seen on highway signs in mountainous terrain:

⎛ Δ elevation ⎞
" percent grade = ⎜ × 100 .
⎝ map distance ⎟⎠

Humans are notoriously poor at estimating slopes. On a road over a steep moun-
tain pass, you are likely to see a sign reporting “8% Grade Ahead”. If you take the
arctangent of 0.08, that “steep” grade has a slope angle of just 4.6°!
Beyond this practical implication, there is a more profound aspect to the fact
that maps represent projections: Although the Earth is approximately spherical, the
piece of paper or computer screen that displays the map is flat. There is inevitably
some distortion that occurs when we project a spherical surface onto a flat medium.
There are a myriad of map projections that accomplish this task depending on
the size of the map area and the purpose for which the map is needed (Snyder,
1987). For now, you mostly need to know that all maps represent tradeoffs of the
following factors:
• Conformal — preserves the same scale in every direction, locally,
thus maintaining the correct shape of the features

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• Equal Area — preserves the area throughout, but distorts the shape
• Equidistant — depicts the correct distance between a point at the
center of the projection and points in any direction away from the
center
• Equal Angle — Shows true angles or bearings, locally
You cannot have all of the above in a single map! For example, a map that is both
conformal and equal area is impossible, as is a map that is equidistant and equal
angle. As we shall see below, stereonets have exactly the same limitations because
they are fundamentally the same thing: a projection of spherical data onto a flat
screen or paper.
Map coordinates are usually given in terms of longitude and latitude. You
are, of course, familiar with a globe with its lines of longitude running from pole to
pole and lines of latitude running around the globe perpendicular to its rotation
axis (Fig. 1.9). Lines of longitude are known as great circles; if you slice the globe

Figure 1.9 — Left: the globe with lines of longitude and latitude. Right: a cut-away view of
the earth showing how the position of New York City is defined by a vector from the cen-
ter of the Earth that pierces the surface of the sphere in a point

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

through the middle, the intersection on the surface is a great circle. A more con-
crete way of visualizing great circles is to think of a peeled orange or grapefruit:
the lines made by the segments of the fruit are great circles because all of the seg-
ments meet in the middle. You have probably heard people speak of “great circle
routes” as the shortest distance between two points. That is true because that line is
an arc or segment of a great circle. The lines of latitude are small circles because
they do not cut through the center of the globe. The complete coordinates of any
point on a globe, say New York City, are given by its longitude — the angle be-
tween the great circle that goes through Greenwich, England and that which goes
through New York — and the latitude — the angle between the equator and a line
drawn from the center of the Earth to New York (Fig. 1.9 right). Lines through the cen-
ter of a sphere intersect the surface at a point (e.g., New York City). Finally, you can see
that if you were to rotate the vector from the center to New York City about the ro-
tation axis of the Earth, it would sweep out a cone and the intersection of the cone
with the sphere produces a small circle (Fig. 1.9), which is why they are sometimes
called conic sections.
Mapping has been revolutionized in the last decade or two by three trends:
(1) the advent of geographic information systems (GIS) of varying complexity, (2)
the availability of large digital data sets, especially digital topography and ubiqui-
tous satellite imagery with resolutions of a few meters, and (3) small portable de-
vices like tablets, smart phones, and ruggedized laptops equipped with GPS re-
ceivers for accurate positioning. Mapping has gone digital and with it, the need for
geologists who know how to manipulate and extract information from large collec-
tions of numbers has increased dramatically.
Ironically, as the power of the tools and data sets we use has increased, the
number of geologists creating new maps has plummeted. Many students in struc-
tural geology today will never get a chance to make a geologic map beyond what-
ever they experience in field camp. Even so, today’s geologists need to know how to
extract quantitative information from the reams of paper maps published by state
and federal geological surveys for more than 100 years. A few years ago, this would
have meant spreading the map out on a drafting table with scale, compass, and
protractor in hand and carefully carrying out graphical constructions. Today, we
have a variety of software tools available to do these tasks and many government

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

30

15
30

15

Figure 1.10 — Strike and dip symbol for bedding dipping 30° to the east-south-
east and a lineation symbol showing the trend and plunge of a linear feature in
the plane of bedding in map view (left) and visualized as a block diagram
(right).

entities have made raster images of maps available online at little or no cost. We
will work with these scanned maps extensively in this course.
The way we represent the orientation of a planar feature on a map is with a
strike and dip symbol (Fig. 1.10). The exact nature of the symbol varies with the
feature that it represents, but they all have the same basic design: a long line drawn
parallel to the strike of the planar feature and a short tick mark indicating the dip
direction. The magnitude of the dip is commonly shown whereas the strike value is
not. Linear features, like paleocurrent directions, are shown with a lineation sym-
bol which is an arrow with the value of the plunge shown at the arrowhead (Fig.
1.10).
In addition to strike and dip symbols on maps, there is another way to ex-
tract orientation data: because surface of the Earth is irregular — that is, it has
topography — the way planar units cross the surface of earth reflects their orienta-
tion. We call this the rule of V’s because, when seen in map view, contacts that
represent planar surfaces make the form of the letter “V” when they cross topog-
raphy. Where a bed crosses a valley, the tip of the “V” points downstream when the
bed is inclined or dips downstream (Fig. 1.11) and it points upstream when the bed
dips upstream, is horizontal, or dips downstream at an angle less than the stream

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

200 0! 1000 m

Figure 1.11 — The Rule of V’s depicted using

the same geologic map visualized in different
ways. Upper left: the map has been draped over
a digital elevation model and shaded with an
artificial sun in the northeast. Note how the
geological units, especially “Js” cross the valley
in the middle of the map, “V-ing” down
stream. Upper right: oblique block diagram of
the same map area, illustrating how the beds
dip down stream to the East (right). Lower left:
traditional three-point construction for calcu-
lating the dip. Two points along the lower sur-
face of Js are at the same elevation (7600 ft.)
and thus determine the strike direction. The
third point is at a lower elevation. See Figure
1.12 for construction.

gradient. Vertical surfaces cross topography in a straight line, V-ing neither up nor
downstream.
Of course, to interpret correctly the orientation of beds using the rule of V’s,
one has to be able to determined hills, valleys, and which way the rivers flow. Most
geologic maps published by geological surveys contain topographic contours,
lines of equal elevation. If you were to walk exactly along a contour line, you would
go neither up nor down hill; walk perpendicular to the contours and you are going
in the direction of maximum slope. Modern mapping increasingly uses shaded
digital elevation models (DEMs) to portray topography but for quantitative
analysis students still need to know how to use topographic contour maps.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

7600 ft Figure 1.12 — Classical three point

construction to determine the dip of
bed Js in Figure 1.11. The diagram is a
vertical plane oriented in the true dip
Js direction (parallel to the line labeled
“1025.5” in Figure 1.11. Note that maps
⎛ 800 ft ⎞ are a projection onto a horizontal
δ = tan −1 ⎜ = 38°
⎝ 1025.5 ft ⎟⎠ plane.
6800 ft
1025.5 ft

(a) Equal Angle (b) Equal Area

Figure 1.13 — Two types of stereonets: (a) the equal angle, or Wulff, net; and (b) the equal
area, or Schmidt, net. All of the blue shaded small circles are the same size and shape on
the surface of the sphere (they all have a 10° radius). You can see that the equal angle net in
(a) is conformal (shape is preserved, that is they are all circles) but is not equal area or
equidistant (the 10° spacing gets bigger as you go from the center to the edge of the net).
Conversely, in the equal area net (b) the circles are distorted except at the center but they
all have the same area and the 10° spacing from the center outward is constant (equidis-
tant).

Stereonets
Structural geologists use stereographic projections to display orientation data
when the spatial relation of the individual observations with respect to each other is
not important. A stereonet can also used to do complex calculations such as rota-
tions, calculating lines of intersection, etc. by placing a sheet of tracing paper over
the grid of lines and rotating it about the center. That function has been largely re-

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

placed by computer stereonet programs that are far more powerful, accurate, and
precise in terms of computation and provide publication quality graphics automat-
ically. Here, we emphasize only the use of stereonets to display orientation data.
One’s first view of a stereonet is instantly familiar: it looks like a globe or a
map of the entire Earth (Fig. 1.9 left). There are great circles, just like lines of lon-
gitude, running from pole to pole, and small circles, similar to lines of latitude, that
run across the globe from east to west. Of course, our picture of a stereonet, just
like the globe, on the screen is a projection of a sphere onto a flat surface and, as
shown in Figure 1.9, left, can only display half of the sphere. As with any mapping,
depicting a sphere on a flat surface inevitably involves distortion. Two types of
stereonets are commonly in use: the equal area (Schmidt) net and the equal angle
(Wulff) net (Fig. 1.13).
Stereonets used in mineralogy, structural geology, geophysics embody all of
the same concepts as our globe. Planar features are plotted as great circles and lin-
ear features plot as points and there are different types of distortion depending on
the type of projection used. In a similar fashion to our example of a globe, miner-

(a)
(b)

β
e β
strik α 90–α
α
δ ike γ
str
90–δ

δ
great a line pierces the
hemisphere in a great
circle circle
point

Figure 1.14 — The lower hemisphere projection (a) oblique view, and (b) top view.
Planes intersect the hemisphere as great circles and lines plot as points. δ is the true
dip, α is the apparent dip, and β is the angle between the strike and the trend of the
apparent dip. Note similarity of (b) with Figure 1.15b.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

(a) (b) N
s tr i
ke
=
05

E
6°

α
N

–
90
α
β
γ
δ = 35° β
W 90–α E
90–δ α
ike γ
str
strike

90–δ

S
δ
W

great circle
n e cl e

of plane
pla cir

S
o f e at
gr

Figure 1.15 — Plotting a plane and doing an apparent dip calculation by hand,
by rotating a piece of tracing paper over the stationary grid of the stereonet.
(a) shows the paper rotated so that one can plot the great circle that represents
the plane, and (b) shows the tracing paper rotated back so that N on the paper
and on the grid are aligned.

alogists use an upper hemisphere projection whereas in structural geology and

geophysics we use a lower hemisphere projection (Fig. 1.14). The latter projec-
tion means that we are looking down into a cereal bowl and seeing the inside of the
bowl projected onto the horizontal plane through the center of the sphere (Fig.
1.14). Visualizing this geometry is fundamental to understanding how stereonets
display data.
Plotting stereonets by hand is tedious and imprecise. The basic idea is shown
in Figure 1.15. An equal angle, or more likely equal area, grid is mounted on a
piece of cardboard or some other firm but thin surface. The geologist then places a
sheet of tracing paper over the grid and put a push pin or thumbtack through the
tracing paper into a hole in the center of the firm backing to which the grid is
mounted. The tracing paper can now rotate about the center of the grid. After
marking North on the tracing paper, the geologist is ready to begin plotting. To plot

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

a plane, rotate the tracing paper by an amount equal and opposite to the strike of
the plane. For example, in Figure 1.15, the plane has a strike of 056° so the geolo-
gist rotates the tracing paper by 56° counterclockwise. Once this rotation is accom-
plished, one counts in on the east axis of the grid an amount equal to the dip value
and then traces by hand the corresponding great circle. Rotating the tracing paper
back to alignment with the grid — so that north on the tracing paper is aligned
with north on the grid puts the great circle that represents the plane in its correct
position (Fig. 1.15b).
The great circles and small circles on the stereonet grid are read in degrees,
just like longitude and latitude are marked off in degrees on the globe. In Figure
1.15, the grid is drawn in 10° increments, whereas most paper stereonets are in 2°
increments (most computer programs allow you to adjust the grid increment). If
you read in along the EW grid line (Fig. 1.15), you’ll see that you can measure from
0° at the edge of the net (known as the primitive or horizontal) to 90° at the center;
a vertical line will plot as a point exactly at the center of the net (a plunge of 90°).
Angles measured in the plane (e.g., rakes) can be determined by counting off the
number of degrees along the great circle. For example, in Figure 1.15a, you can see
that the rake of the apparent
dip line (that has a plunge of
α) is 40°; likewise, the angle in
the plane between the appar-
ent dip line and the true dip
line is 50°.
If all that sounds com-
plicated, it is but nonetheless
the procedure is a skill that
can be learned with a small
amount of practice. The
problems with this approach,
Figure 1.16 — Two planes and the line of intersection
however, are two-fold: first, between the visualized in three dimensions using the
several of the operations have Macintosh program Stereonet3D (Cardozo and All-
mendinger, 2013). Programs like this can help if you
nothing to do with learning are having trouble relating a stereonet plot to the
how to interpret these displays three dimensional objects it represents.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

but only with the limitations of drawing great circles by hand. How does rotating
the tracing paper in a direction opposite to the rotation of the strike with respect to
north make this process clearer? Hint: it doesn’t! Second and more importantly, few
structural geologists use paper stereonets now, anyway, as there are a number of
good programs available for Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. The computer cer-
tainly isn’t virtually rotating a piece of paper with respect to a grid; it is using sim-
ple but powerful mathematical algorithms and displaying the results on a stereonet
because that’s what structural geologists are used to! Thus, in most of this book, we
are going to learn how to do structural calculations the way the computer does and
only use stereographic projects to visualize our results (Fig. 1.16).

Computing
Structural geologists use a large number of computer programs to speed up
their work. These programs may be written in a variety of languages: a few
decades ago the language was likely to be Fortran, Pascal, or Basic; today it is more
likely to written in some flavor of C, Python, Java, or Matlab. What is important,
however, is not the language but the algorithm behind the language. In this book,
we will use a very simple computing environment, the humble spreadsheet pro-
gram, usually exemplified by Microsoft Excel®. There are several advantages to
this approach:
1. You have probably used spreadsheets before so they are familiar.
That means that you can just focus on the algorithm and not worry
about language syntax, development environment, etc.
2. It is quite likely that you already have Microsoft Office® installed
on your computer and thus you already have Excel®. No addition-
al purchase necessary!
3. A spreadsheet is naturally in the form of a table, or matrix, and
many of the things we would like to calculate in structural geology
are best thought of as tables of numbers.
Computers have a couple of traits that you will probably find either exhilarating or
frustrating: they are dumb and they are logical. Because computers are dumb ma-
chines, they are extremely literal: they will do exactly what you tell them to do, even

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

if it is not really what you wanted! Second, be-

Those of you who already know a
cause they are logical, you have to understand programming language should,
the logic of your calculation before you can tell by all means, do the exercises in
the computer what to do. Nonetheless, comput- this book using that language
ing is a profoundly powerful skill for a scientist rather than in a spreadsheet.
to possess, and it is in that spirit that this book More advanced programing lan-
guages have many features that
emphasizes simple computing via spreadsheets
simplify the overall task of im-
to solve structural geology problems. Once you
plementing an algorithm. For ex-
understand the power of the calculation, that is ample, a simple do/for loop in a
the algorithm, you will have greater motivation programing language is more
to learn a programming environment much cumbersomely implemented in a
more powerful than a spreadsheet program. spreadsheet by manually copying
and pasting rows containing for-
A spreadsheet, like any program, has cer- mulae and nested loops are even
tain rules that one must follow. For those of you more difficult.
who have never used a spreadsheet for anything
more than making a table, we offer the following
abbreviated set of rules:
• To fill a cell with a computed value, the first character in the cell
must be the equals sign, “=”. Following the equals sign is the for-
mula that you want to compute.
• In formulas, one refers to the input data, whether a number or an-
other computed value, via its cell address. The cell address is com-
posed of a letter that indicates the column of the cell followed by a
number that indicates the row. For example, “C3” refers to the val-
ue in column C, row 3. When entering a formula, after the equals
sign you can usually enter the cell address by just clicking on the
cell that you want.
• When you copy a formula from one part of the spreadsheet to an-
other, the cell addresses are adjusted automatically — that is, the
cell addresses are relative. If you have a formula in C3 that uses the
value in A1, when you copy the formula to D4 (one column over
and one row down from the original), it will automatically adjust to

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

use the value in B2 (one over and one down from A1). Relative cell
addresses are one of the reasons why spreadsheets are so powerful.
• Sometimes, however, you want to keep using the original value
even though you have copied the formula. For this you need an ab-
solute cell address which is indicated with a “$” in front of the col-
umn and/or row letter/number. If, in the above example, you
wanted to keep using the value in A1 when the formula was copied
to a different cell, you would type the address as “$A$1” in the
formula.
• Finally, for now, all computer languages, including spreadsheets, do
trigonometric calculations using radians rather than degrees. Use-
ful formulae for converting from radians to degrees are:

180°
1 radian = = 57.2958°;
π
" (1.1)
π 3π
90° = ; 180° = π ; 270°= ; 360°=2π
2 2

Say you want to calculate the sine of the angle in cell A3. In the
cell where you want the answer to appear (e.g., A4) you would type:
=SIN(RADIANS(A3))

To convert the value in A4 back to degrees you would enter

=DEGREES(ASIN(A4))

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

Exercises—Chapter 1

1. For the following block diagrams, fill in the bed geometry on each exposed side
of the block. For each side, indicate whether one would see a true dip or an ap-
parent dip of the bed if you observed that side of the block head on (looking
perpendicular to that face of the block).

(a) (b)

30 90

(c) (d)

10
30

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

2. For each of the map snippets below, state qualitatively which way the bedding
dips. Start by using the topographic contours to identify ridges and valleys and
then determine which way the creeks in the valley flow (i.e., the up- and down-
stream directions). Then, use the way that the stratigraphic contacts cross the
valley to determine the dip direction. For each map, it is sufficient to state that
“the bedding dips to the east” or “the bedding dips to the SW”.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

3. Below are five orientations of planes. Convert them into right-hand rule for-
mat:
a. Convert from Quadrant to RHR format: (i) W 15 S, 61 S; (ii) N 56 E, 20
NW; (iii) S 30 E, 33 W;
b. Convert from Dip direction and dip to RHR format: (i) 237, 74; (ii) 099, 48

4. The instructor will set up a tilted layer or rock in the lab or will take you out to
a place where you can measure strikes and dips of a natural planar surface.
Each person in the class, including the instructor or other experienced geolo-
gist, should measure the plane the same number of times, at least10 or 15 times
would be good.
a. Describe the variation in your answers: How much variation in strike is
there? In dip? Does it appear easier to measure the strike or the dip more
accurately? What factors might determine which is easier?
b. Now compare your answers to those of your classmates and instructor. Can
you tell which answers are more precise or whose are more accurate? How?

5. Plot your results from Question 4 in a stereonet program as (a) great circles, and
(b) poles to the planes.

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

6. The following stereonet plots show planes and or lines. Describe the orienta-
tions in each and answer any additional questions written next under the plot.

what is the approximate orienta-

tion of the line of intersection of
the black and blue planes?

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CHAPTER 1 MEASUREMENT & DISPLAY

All of the questions below apply to the following table. Each row in the table is a
single datum, i.e. a single plane with one or more lines in it. Planes are given in az-
imuth format and lines in trend, plunge format. Asterisks show missing values; ***
is a missing azimuth or bearing, and ** is a missing plunge or dip. Some of the val-
ues are redundant: for example, once you know the true dip and dip direction, you
also know the strike and dip.
Datum Strike & Dip of Plane True Dip (T&P) Apparent Dip(s)
(T&P)

1 050, **, * ***, ** 090, 25

2 ***, **, * ***, ** 159, 34 and 270, 43

3 ***, **, * 010, 48 321, ** and 090, **

7. Solve for the missing values for each of the three datums using a stereonet to
solve for each of the missing values in each row.
(a) In the second datum, above, you are given two apparent dips. Use a stere-
onet to determine the angle between those to apparent dips, measured in
the plane that contains them.
(b) Assume that the plane in datum three is a bedding plane. Restore the plane
to horizontal. What were the original bearings of the two apparent dip di-
rections prior to the tilt of the bedding?
Rotate the plane in row 1 by returning the plane in row 2 back to its original hori-
zontal position. What is the orientation of the plane in row one after you have per-
formed this rotation?

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