The course provides basic concepts for the understanding of rock and lithosphere deformation. Structural geology tries to relate present day geometries, such as folds and faults, to deformation histories. Deformation histories in turn help to reconstruct the nature of the forces the deformation is related to. The course consists of three different parts, which complement each other and are strongly interlinked. A series of lectures provide concepts of stress, strain, rheology and strength of the lithosphere, and provides the means to describe structures from the grains scale, over the outcrop scale to the mountain and tectonic scale. In a series of practicals, students learn how to interpret geological maps and how to plot and use structural data to solve easy geological problems. Towards the end of the semester, geological field trips provide hands-on experience on a broad range of geological structures. The excursions provide a good summary of what is taught during the semester and gives an overview of the range of structures that occur within the Caledonian Orogen in the vicinity of Bergen. Here, students learn to sketch, measure and document structures.

Principle topics taught include:

- Stress and strain

- Brittle structures, faults

- Folding

- Fabrics

- Rheology

- Shear Zones

- Contractional regimes

- Strike-slip regimes

- Extensional regimes

After completing the course GEOV104, the students should be able to:

- Differentiate between stress and strain;

- Describe normal, reverse, and strike slip faults

- Characterise the rheology of the lithosphere

- Describe and characterise a wide range of geological structures from the micro to the mesoscale;

- Collect and document structural field data;

- Interpret simple geological maps and draw geological profiles;

- Describe structures associated with the main plate tectonic regimes, continental rifting and extension, collision and mountain building, strike slip