Practice Questions #34

GSI and UPSC aspirants, answer the following questions


GSI – Write notes on the following:
(a) Gondwana coalfields of India
(b) Cretaceous Palaeogene extinction event
(c) Irrawaddy system

UPSC – What are major differences between transform and transcurrent fault


Answer in the comment section below

2 Comments

  1. Anyone please review my answer:
    Q. What are the major differences between transform and transcurrent faults?

    Answer: The term transform fault can be applied more broadly to describe any strike-slip fault that has the following characteristics:
    1. The active portion of a transform fault terminates at discrete endpoints. At the endpoints, the transform intersects other structures
    2. The length of a transform fault can be constant, or it can increase or decrease over time.
    3. In cases where the fault length is constant or decreasing, the amount of displacement along the length of a transform fault is constant.
    4. Displacement across a transform fault can be greater than the length of the fault itself.

    Transcurrent faults differ kinematically from transform faults in a number of ways:

    1. Transcurrent faults die out along their length. This means that at the endpoint of a transcurrent fault, the fault does not terminate abruptly at another fault, but either splays into an array of smaller faults (sometimes called a horsetail), or simply disappears into a zone of plastic strain.
    2. Transcurrent faults initiate at a point and grow along their length as displacement increases. As a consequence, short faults have a small amount of displacement, while long faults have a large amount of displacement. Thus, fault displacement (as measured in map view) is proportional to fault length.
    3. Displacement across a transcurrent fault is greatest near the center of its trace and decreases to zero at the endpoints of the fault.
    4. The displacement on a transcurrent fault must always be less than the length of the fault

    1. @@geologykabir:disqus Your answer is good.
      But you can
      1. add some introduction and conclusion to your answer
      2. add sketches/diagram to explain your points to create more impact
      3. you can underline the important points in your answer so as to grab attention.

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