Tension
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NOT Tension - you can not actually have tension in the earth other than where there is an overhang! - forces are always compressive, it just depends which force is greater. Normal faults occur when the maximum principal stress is vertical - when GRAVITY is the dominant force.
I'm afraid the first answer is right.
It occurs in continental-plate thinning, stretching and eventual division, as is happening in NE Africa. Although gravity will certainly play a part the displacement that just have a horizontal component.
Gravity alone will not produce a fault unless the rock on one or both sides the fault-plane can move away from the other. There is a fault-form in which the vertical displacement predominates, dropping a block between two faults to produce a graben (such as parts of the North Sea), but it still needs tension resulting in a certain amount of horizontal movement.
I belive its is Tension
normal fault
Reverse and thrust faults are both under compressive stress.
In a reverse fault the maximum principal stress is horizontal, compression causes reverse (thrust) faults.
A fault that forms at a divergent boundary
Shear stress causes Transform faults, in strike-slip zones of conservative boundaries.
tension (Dip-Slip Normal fault)
a pulling motion causes a normal fault
In a reverse fault the maximum principal stress is horizontal, compression causes reverse (thrust) faults.
Normal fault forms tension stress. It is a stress state wherein a body of material is being stretched or expanded.
normal fault
reverse .yu welcome
normal fault
The kind of stress that causes fault block mountains is Tension
The stress that causes strike-slip faults is produced by a shearing force and so is called shear stress.
Faulting is caused by stress in the rock layers, the stress can break and crack the rock causing a fault. There are two types of faults a normal fault and a reverse fault.
They have the same type of force on each fault and the tension is released Whenever the vertical stress (which mostly is because of gravity) is more than horizontal stresses, normal faults can be created or activated.
Reverse and thrust faults are both under compressive stress.