The block of rock which lies on the underside of an inclined fault or of a vein of mineral.
Example sentencesExamples
- At its southern boundary the terrane lies in the footwall of another north-directed thrust with Dazhuqu terrane ophiolitic rocks or Paleogene Liuqu Conglomerate in the hanging wall.
- Anticlinal folds occupy the mutual hanging walls of conjugate fault pairs with synclines occupying mutual footwalls between adjacent pairs.
- Normal faulting led to the unroofing of metamorphic rocks in their footwalls.
- As a result, Triassic rocks in the hanging wall thrust onto Upper Cretaceous rocks in the footwall.
- They contain kilometre-scale blocks of igneous basement rocks, plucked by the rising diapir from the footwall of the fault.