How To Understand Hanging Wall And Footwall

The line it makes on the earth s surface is the fault trace.

How to understand hanging wall and footwall.

The fault strike is the direction of the line of intersection between the fault plane and earth s surface. This terminology comes from mining. The dip of a fault plane is its angle of inclination measured from the horizontal. When the fault plane is vertical there is no hanging wall or footwall.

The block below is called the footwall. The hanging wall occurs above the fault plane and the footwall occurs below it. Fault plane is called the hanging wall or headwall. Where the fault plane is sloping as with normal and reverse faults the upper side is the hanging wall and the lower side is the footwall.

The hanging wall is above the footwall. When working a tabular ore body the miner stood with the footwall under his feet and with the hanging wall above him. In a fault plane that dips 45 degrees the overlying rock unit is the hanging wall and the underlying rock unit is the footwall. In a non vertical fault where the fault plane dips the footwall is the section of the fault that lies under the fault while the hanging wall lies over the fault.

Geology the section of rock that extends below a diagonal fault line the corresponding upper section being the hanging wall.