Homocline

In structural geology, a homocline or homoclinal structure, (from old Greek:homo = same, cline = inclination) is a geological structure in which the bedding of a sequence of rock strata, either sedimentary or igneous, dips uniformly in a single direction having the same general inclination in terms of direction and angle. A homocline can be associated with either one limb of a fold, the edges of a dome, the coast-ward tilted strata underlying a coastal plain, slice of thrust fault, or a tilted fault block. When the homoclinal strata consists of alternating beds of rock that vary hardness and resistance to erosion, their erosion produces either cuestas, homoclinal ridges, or hogbacks depending on the angle of dip of the strata. On a topographic map, the landfroms associated with homoclines exhibit nearly parallel elevation contour lines that show a steady change in elevation in a given direction. In the subsurface, they characterize by parallel structural contour lines.