Monocline

A monocline (or, rarely, a monoform) is a step-like fold in rock strata consisting of a zone of steeper dip within an otherwise horizontal or gently dipping sequence.

Formation
Monoclines may be formed in several different ways (see diagram)


 * By differential compaction over an underlying structure, particularly a large fault at the edge of a basin due to the greater compactibility of the basin fill, the amplitude of the fold will die out gradually upwards.
 * By mild reactivation of an earlier extensional fault during a phase of inversion causing folding in the overlying sequence.
 * As a form of fault propagation fold during upward propagation of an extensional fault in basement into an overlying cover sequence.
 * As a form of fault propagation fold during upward propagation of a reverse fault in basement into an overlying cover sequence.

Examples

 * Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
 * Comb Ridge in southern Utah
 * Grandview-Phantom Monocline in Grand Canyon, Arizona
 * Grand Hogback in Colorado
 * Lebombo Mountains in Southern Africa
 * Lapstone Monocline in the Blue Mountains (Australia)
 * Beaumaris Monocline in Victoria (Australia)
 * Purbeck Monocline on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England
 * Fore-Sudetic Monocline, Poland
 * Sindh Monocline, Pakistan
 * Torres Flexure, southern Brazil