INCLINED OR FOLDED STRATA.—Normally, strata are horizontal, and dikes and veins are vertical or nearly so. Hence the stratified rocks are more exposed to the crumpling action of the tangential pressure in the earth’s crust than the eruptive and vein rocks; and it is for this reason and partly because the stratified rocks are vastly more abundant than the other kinds, that the effects of the corrugation of the crust are studied chiefly in the former. But it should be understood that folded dikes and veins are not uncommon.
That the stratified rocks have, in many instances, suffered great disturbance subsequent to their deposition, is very evident; for, while the strata must have been originally approximately straight and horizontal, they are now often curved, or sharply bent and contorted, and highly inclined or even vertical. All inclined beds or strata are portions of great folds or arches. Thus we may feel sure when we see a stratum sloping downward into the ground, that its inclination or dip does not continue at the same angle, but that at some moderate depth it gradually changes and the bed rises to the surface again. Similarly, if we look in the opposite direction and think of the bed as sloping upward—we know that the surface of the ground is being constantly lowered by erosion, and consequently that the inclined stratum formerly extended higher than it does now, but not indefinitely higher; for, in imagination, we see it curving and descending to the level of the present surface again. Hence it forms, at the same time, part of one side of a great concave arch, and of a great convex arch, just as every inclined surface on the ground indicates both a hill and a valley. And guided by this principle we can often reconstruct with much probability folds that have been more or less completely swept away by erosion, or that are buried beyond our sight in the earth’s crust.
The arches of the strata are rarely distinctly indicated in the topography, but must be studied where the ground has been partly dissected, as in cliffs, gorges, quarries, etc. They are also, as a rule, far more irregular and complex than they are usually conceived or represented. The wrinkles of our clothing are often better illustrations of rock-folds than the models and diagrams used for that purpose. This becomes self-evident when we reflect that the earth’s crust is exceedingly heterogeneous in composition and structure, and must, therefore, yield unequally to the unequal strains imposed upon it.