Akshay,

To start off short. No. Rock pattern and structure is not responsible for age. I would go talk to your advisor about this.

There are many different possible patterns of fracture in any given sample. These are due to different reasons that the rock may have fractured. To give you a better answer, we need more information. What scale is the fracture? Was the sample "in place" (i.e. broken off of an outcrop using your rock hammer or simply washed up on the beach)? What type of rock is it?

Fracture force is a function of the type of rock and its physical characteristics (pore space, mineralogy, mineral alignment, molecular bond strength, crystal structure...) have almost everything to do with the amount of applied stress necessary to fracture a rock.

Fracture can also happen due to different geologic factors (tectonics, freeze-thaw processes, overburden, wave processes, fluvial erosion...) so it is most important to note what geologic setting your sample was "in place" in and what its rock history may have been. I say this because different geologic factors produce different patterns of fractures. So, think of the geologic history of your sample to try and answer your questions.

Simple physics will likely not explain why a sample has fractured the way it has, why its ripple marks are different in each depositional plane (striations are not a depositional feature) and come to be found on a beach. Simple geological study, on the other hand, may be more helpful.

In summary, the geologic history of a rock that is still "in place" will give you a better clue of how/why the rock became to be in the state you have found it in. If the rock was not in place when you found it, you cannot attribute those patterns and fractures to anything because (being on a beach) it could be from anywhere.

Good luck.

ZP

Hi Akshay,

Is effect of rock pattern / structure responsible for rock age and fracture age?

It is the other way around:

The rock pattern / structures / textures depend crucially on the

crystallization and deformation history of a rock and a whole region. Each previous rock structure and mineral content influenced all subsequent deformations. The absolute age of crystallization events can be dated using geochronological methods. The deformation events, however, can only be reconstructed in its relative age sequence. Geochronology dealing with the highly sophisticated methods of age determination and the more intuitive approach of the earth sciences. A major challenge is the interaction between crystallization, deformation and time.

Best regards,

Guenter

you can check out this article

The effects of deformation-induced microstructures on intragrain 40Ar/39Ar ages in potassium feldspar

S. M. Reddy, G. J. Potts, S. P. Kelley, and N. O. Arnaud.