When massive tectonic plates beneath the Earth's surface shift, slide, and collide. These powerful effects can cause many different deformations of the Earth's crust. Faulting , folding , and jointing are the three different kinds of common structural features that can be found within the park.
Faults are fractures in the Earth's crust in which a reasonable amount of displacement has occurred.
Many of the cliffs in the Big Bend area are actually the result of faulting that occurred in the park shortly after the mountain building episodes that created the Rocky Mountains. In the picture to the right, a fault cuts across beds of Santa Elena limestone from the top right to the bottom left. The layers of rock on the left hand side are in a vertically lower position than those on the right. Thrust faults are a result of compressional forces in the Earth's crust. When the crust is being pushed from opposing sides, compressional forces are released by faulting.