15 significance of faulting to Human activities. Faulting is one of the internal land forming processes taught in geography. I will be taking you through the significance of faulting to human activities. Before that, you have to know the meaning of faulting. What is faulting Faulting is the cracking or fracturing of the brittle crustal rocks due to tectonic forces (tensional and compressional). Faults are cracks or fractures that develop in the crust when subjected to tectonic forces.

Features resulting from faulting

1) Fault scarp / escarpments

2) Block mountain /Horst / fault blocks

3) Rift valley

4) Tilt blocks

5) Fault steps

The above are some of the features formed through the process of faulting.

Now let’s see the 15 significance of faulting and how those features formed affect human activities.

15 significance of faulting and features formed to human activities

Below are the positive and negative significance of faulting and it’s features to human activities.

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Positive significance

• Faulting leads to formation of features like Horst mountains and Rift valley that form beautiful sceneries. The beautiful sceneries will attract tourists, hence earning the country foreign exchange which will support the countries economy.
• Faulting will lead to formation of lakes that will act as sources of water for both domestic and industrial use.
• It will also lead to displacement of rocks, therefore exposing minerals that are mined.
• Faulting leads to formation of block mountains that receive rain on the windward side. The rain will then give rise to rivers that will provide water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use, also may generate H.E.P in presence of waterfalls.
• Faulting creates deep faults which may act as passage for steam jets. The steam jets may be utilized to produce geothermal power.
• The block mountains resulting from faulting may receive heavy rains on the windward side. The rains may encourage growth of dense forest which provide timber for building and construction.
• When faulting occurs across a ridge, it may provide a dip which could form a mountain pass where transport and communication lines can be constructed.
• Faulting leads to formation of fault scarps where springs occur at the foot of fault scarps, attracting settlements.
• Vertically faulting across a river may cause a waterfall which may be used to generate H.E.P

The above positive significance are among our list of 15 significance of faulting to human activities. Now let’s look at the negative significance of faulting.

Negative significance

• Subsidence of the land due to faulting may lead to loss of lives as well as destruction of properties.

• Faulting may change direction of rivers or even make them disappear. This may interfere with agriculture to farmers who depend on those rivers.
• Faulting will result to uneven land surfaces as a result of faults, therefore disrupting transport and communication networks.
• It may change the river direction hence causing floods downstream.
• Fault lines are centres of earthquakes that may lead to loss of lives and destruction of properties.
• It leads to formation of Horst mountains that receive low rainfall on leeward side, hence discourage agriculture.

The above is our 15 significance of faulting to human activities. You can comment your views below. We also have teachers in geography, in case of any problem. You can feel free to reach us via our email, we can also teach on map work. Our email is falcomblog@gmail.com