Introduction to the structure of the Earth / Введение в структуры Земли

“Structural geology is the study of the structural (as opposed to compositional) features of rocks, of the geographic distribution of the features and their causes. A structural feature is one produced in rock by movements after deposition and commonly after consolidation of the rock.”# These definitions are drawn independently of the size of the structural features considered, and the range of sizes involved is great. Study of structural features of submicroscopic size has been carried on primarily in the field of solid state physics although features of this size are doubtless important in their aggregate effect on rock deformation. Geologists have long been concerned with structural features of microscopic size; the field of petrofabrics deals largely with such features.
Petrofabrics, the study of rock fabric, involves analysis of the component parts of a rock—the fragments, crystal grains, and their sizes, shapes, arrangements, orientations in space, relations to one another, internal structure, and the movements and process which played a part in the formation of the fabric.
Most geologists are concerned with structural features which range in size from those encountered in an outcrop (mesoscopic size) to those of regional size which must be represented on geologic or structural maps. Still largerscale features are considered in tectonics—“the study of the broader features of the earth and their causes.”+

The name of this book implies an all-encompassing study of the earth. The student interested in the formation of structures such as we see in a folded mountain belt or in subsurface investigation over a salt dome, or the student with an eye for larger structural features may grow impatient with a discussion of physical principles and wonder at the long description of the nature of materials <...>