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Words You Should Know

Stress: A force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume.

Shearing: Stress that pushes a mass of rock in opposite directions.

Tension: Stress that stretches rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle.

Compression: Stress that squeezes rock until it folds or breaks.

Deformation: A change in the volume or shape of earth's crust.

Fault: A break or crack in earth's lithosphere along which the rocks move.

Strike-slip fault: A type of fault where rocks on either side move past each other sidways with little up-down motion.

Normal fault:A type of fault where the hanging wall slides downward;caused by tension in the crust.

Reverse fault: A type of fault where the hanging wall slides upward;caused by compression in the crust.

Fault block mountain: A mountain that forms were a normal fault lifts up a block of rock.

Folds: Bend in rock that forms were part of earth's crust is compressed.

Plateau: A landform that has a more or less level surface and is elevated high above sea level.