hanging wall

n. Geology

1. The mass of rock overlying a mineral deposit in a mine.

2. The overlying block of a fault having an inclined fault plane.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hanging wall

(Geological Science) the rocks on the upper side of an inclined fault plane or mineral vein. Compare footwall

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

hang·ing wall

(hăng′ĭng)

The block of rock lying above an inclined fault. See more at fault. Compare footwall.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

hanging wall - the upper wall of an inclined fault

inclined fault - a geological fault in which one side is above the other

wall - anything that suggests a wall in structure or function or effect; "a wall of water"; "a wall of smoke"; "a wall of prejudice"; "negotiations ran into a brick wall"

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References in periodicals archive

45 Ma, thickened THS metasediments were already in the hanging wall of the main Himalayan decollement.

Understanding the origins of Eo- and Neohimalayan granitoids in Eastern Tibet

It is located at Hongkou Township, Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province, in the hanging wall of the causative Yangxiu-Beichuan fault with relatively large horizontal dextral displacement and vertical displacement.

Determination of three-dimensional in situ stresses from anelastic strain recovery (ASR) of Wenchuan Earthquake Fault Scientific Drilling-1 (WFSD-1)

The ADD is a west dipping, north-south striking shear zone that juxtaposes upper amphibolite facies migmatitic gneiss in the hanging wall with granulite facies migmatitic gneiss in the footwall.

Strain partitioning during dome formation in the Himalaya: Insights into the Ama Drime Massif and Leo Pargil dome, NW India

The Leo Pargil shear zone defines the west flank of the dome and separates the footwall rocks of the dome from the Haimanta Group and the overlying metasedimentary rocks in the hanging wall to the west (Thiede et al., 2006; Hintersberger et al.,2010, in press).

Metamorphism, melting, and exhumation of the Leo Pargil Dome, NW India

Rocks progressively incorporated into the deforming MCT zone were continually juxtaposed against hotter rocks in the hanging wall. As the MCT propagated southward, rocks in the hanging wall were cooled and rapidly exhumed toward the synorogenic topographic surface.

Tectonothermal evolution of the Greater Himalayan Series, Sutlej Valley, NW India