Its strike and its dip.
Normal fault hanging wall and footwall.
They bound many of the mountain ranges of the world and many of the rift valleys found along spreading margins.
An upthrown block between two normal faults dipping away from each other is a horst.
Low angle normal faults with regional tectonic significance may be designated detachment faults.
When the fault plane is vertical there is no hanging wall or footwall.
Normal dip slip faults are produced by vertical compression as earth s crust lengthens.
If you imagine undoing the motion of a normal fault you will undo the stretching and thus shorten the horizontal distance between two points on either side of the fault.
Any fault plane can be completely described with two measurements.
Normal faults occur in areas undergoing extension stretching.
A type of fault in which the hanging wall moves down relative to the footwall and the fault surface dips steeply commonly from 50 o to 90 o groups of normal faults can produce horst and graben topography or a series of relatively high and low standing fault blocks as seen in areas where the crust is rifting or being pulled apart by plate tectonic activity.
If the hanging wall drops relative to the footwall you have a normal fault.
The hanging wall slides down relative to the footwall.
A downthrown block between two normal faults dipping towards each other is a graben.
The strike is the direction of the fault.
Other articles where normal fault is discussed.