Finally, though, I thought of one! (Well, actually I though of two others, but I won't digress... ha! Oh, and at least two other great words have already been used: mylonite and welded tuff.)
The word: Detachment, more specifically Detachment Fault. The entire post envisioned a couple nights ago, "Detachment: See header photo." (That's the one up there, above this blog post.)
I have gone a little beyond that short, terse post, but won't really get into a definition, which would involve a low-angle normal fault of regional extent, probably created by, or during a period of, what is sometimes known as "extreme extension."
Official AGI definition for detachment fault.
Detachment Fault: a good geological mystery book.
A number of Detachment Quotes.
My posts labeled "detachment" (there are only 20 so far, including this one).
Detachment fault on Facebook (it has no friends!)
The Northern Snake Range décollement or detachment fault as seen from Great Basin National Park.
This post has been submitted to Accretionary Wedge #35: What's Your Favorite Geology Word?
5 comments:
I may be too detached to read this. ;)
The detachment fault description of the Whipple Mountains mentions they run east - west. I thought only the Uintas did so (until you get to the Brooks Range anyway). Detachment I can do, a single fault is a little tougher....
Gaelyn, I've also been feeling rather detached.
Mike b, there at least a few east-west oriented ranges in the southern Basin and Range, usually they are core complexes like the Whipple Mountains. I think when people say that the only east-west range is the Uintas (until the Brooks Range) that they really are talking about the Rocky Mountains.
Will check this out on Google Earth when my computer stops giving me clicking fits!
From Wilderness Utah: " Some guidebooks have tried to boost the Uintas' singularity by claiming that they're one of only two east-west running ranges in the Unites States, sharing the honor with the venerable Brooks Range in Alaska. However, as many as forty other ranges within the U.S. can claim the same distinction."
Not that I really know what the other 40 ranges are, besides the Whipple Mountains in CA and the Talkeetna Range in AK. Maybe the Ozarks.
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