Faulting

Syllabus tag: KCSE | Geography | Form 2 | Topic 10 Faulting

Lesson objectives

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

• Define faulting and name the parts of a fault.
• Describe the types of faults and the features resulting from faulting.
• Explain the theories of rift valley formation.
• Describe the Great Rift Valley and explain the significance of faulting.

Summary

Faulting is the cracking and displacement of crustal rocks. A normal fault results from tension, a reverse fault from compression. The chief features are the fault scarp, block or horst mountain, tilt block and rift valley. The Great Rift Valley runs from Jordan to Mozambique, and its Kenyan section is the Gregory Rift.