File:Fault breccia zone (Rampart Range Fault, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA) 4.jpg

English: Faults are fractures in rocks along which there has been differential displacement. Fault movement is usually in the form of sudden jolts - this sends out shock waves, which results in earthquakes. Compressional stress produces reverse faults and thrust faults. Extensional stress produces normal faults. Shear stress produces transform faults.

Seen here is an outcrop of rubbly, disturbed material in a wide fault zone at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. This deformed zone originated during movement along a high-angle reverse fault called the Rampart Range Fault. The fault zone itself appears to be about 100 meters across in places. Both the hanging wall and footwall consist of the Fountain Formation, a Pennsylvanian-aged siliciclastics succession. (See figure 2 in: sites.coloradocollege.edu/jnoblett/wp-content/blogs.dir/8... )

The Rampart Range Fault was active during the Laramide Orogeny (late Mesozoic to early Cenozoic), which formed the true Rocky Mountains in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and western Canada.

Locality: Juniper Way Loop roadcut west of the northern end of North Gateway Rock, Garden of the Gods, northwestern side of the town of Colorado Springs, northeast of Manitou Springs, western El Paso County, central Colorado, USA (vicinity of 38° 52’ 51.09” North latitude, 104° 52’ 58.07” West longitude)

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Some info. from:

Noblett et al. (1987) - The Garden of the Gods and basal Phanerozoic nonconformity in and near Colorado Springs, Colorado. pp. 335-338 in: Geological Society of American Centennial Field Guide - Rocky Mountain Section.