No side is consistently the hanging wall or the footwall for the San Andreas Fault. Some parts of it dip east while others dip west. Since the San Andreas Fault is a strike-slip fault, which blocks form the hanging wall and footwall is not particularly important.
Hanging Wall
If an earthquake so catastrophic forced the outer side of the San Andreas fault to "break off", a tsunami would fly across the pacific. Wiping out all continents in its path.
Take the fault as an inclined plane with the earths surface as the horizontal plane.The foot wall side of the fault is always located to the side where the plane of the fault and the horizontal forms an acute angle.The hanging wall side of the fault is always located to the side of the fault where the plane of the fault and the horizontal makes an obtuse angle.The terminology takes no regard to the direction of motion of the blocks either side of the fault. Thus for a dipping fault, the Hanging Wall is the block positioned over the fault and the Foot Wall is the block positioned under it.
The San Andreas Fault is an example of a transform boundary in which plates slide past each other. This type of fault may also be known as a strike slip fault. During this plate motion, lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed. Shear stress causes the undeformed block of rock to experience tearing and smearing.The San Andreas fault is actually a "Strike-Slip" fault, which means that the movement of the plates is a side-to-side movement past each other. The Pacific plate, relatively speaking, is moving north and the North American plate is moving south. This means that the very western coast of California is sliding north past the rest of California. The San Andreas fault is a strike-slip fault
The San Andreas fault is a right-lateral (dextral) strike-slip fault which marks a transform (or sliding) boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. In essence the plate boundary is destructive rather than constructive but at present the energy is directed at moving the Pacific Plate in a generally northerly direction, parallel with the coastline.
Hanging Wall
If an earthquake so catastrophic forced the outer side of the San Andreas fault to "break off", a tsunami would fly across the pacific. Wiping out all continents in its path.
transform boundry as in the san Andreas fault
Take the fault as an inclined plane with the earths surface as the horizontal plane.The foot wall side of the fault is always located to the side where the plane of the fault and the horizontal forms an acute angle.The hanging wall side of the fault is always located to the side of the fault where the plane of the fault and the horizontal makes an obtuse angle.The terminology takes no regard to the direction of motion of the blocks either side of the fault. Thus for a dipping fault, the Hanging Wall is the block positioned over the fault and the Foot Wall is the block positioned under it.
I believe it is called a fault, like the San Andreas fault in California.
Neither. It is a part of nature and therefore it simply is. Another way to look at it is this: If you have property on the west side of the fault, it would be your enemy if there is ever an earthquake capable of sliding half of California into the Pacific Ocean. If you have property on the east side of the fault, it would be your friend if the above happened, because your desert property would turn into beach front property.
The San Andreas fault is part of a fault zone known as a transform fault zone where the two blocks/plates on either side move side by side (rather than on top of or away from one another.) It moves 'dextrally' (also known as right-laterally) which means if you stand on one side of it, the other side appears to move to the right. The plate boundary is about 1,200 kilometers long along the west coast of the USA through California.
The San Andreas Fault is an example of a transform boundary in which plates slide past each other. This type of fault may also be known as a strike slip fault. During this plate motion, lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed. Shear stress causes the undeformed block of rock to experience tearing and smearing.The San Andreas fault is actually a "Strike-Slip" fault, which means that the movement of the plates is a side-to-side movement past each other. The Pacific plate, relatively speaking, is moving north and the North American plate is moving south. This means that the very western coast of California is sliding north past the rest of California. The San Andreas fault is a strike-slip fault
The San Andreas fault is a right-lateral (dextral) strike-slip fault which marks a transform (or sliding) boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. In essence the plate boundary is destructive rather than constructive but at present the energy is directed at moving the Pacific Plate in a generally northerly direction, parallel with the coastline.
A transform fault boundary if I'm not mistaken. The San Andreas fault is actually a "transform" fault, which means that the movement of the plates is a side-to-side movement past each other. The Pacific plate, relatively speaking, is moving north and the North American plate is moving south. This means that the very western coast of California is sliding north past the rest of California.
A blind thrust fault is a geological term for a type of thrust fault which does not appear on the surface - where a hanging wall makes an angle with the horizontal of less than 45 degrees, but is hidden from view.
A reverse fault is in a zone of compressional faulting, rocks in the hanging wall are pushed up relative to rocks in the footwall. A normal fault is in a zone of tensional faulting, rocks in the hanging wall drop down relative to those in a footwall forming a normal fault.