A crack or fracture in the earths' surface is called FAULT.
Faults are fractures on Earth's crust where rocks on either side of the fractures have slid past each other. Some faults are tiny, mainly cracks on the surface, but they can also be hundred of miles long. An example of a fault line that is hundred of miles long is the San Andreas Fault located in California.
There are three types of Faults.
1) strike-slip faults - rocks are sliding past each other in a horizontal motion. e.i. San Andreas Fault, Anatolian Fault
2) normal faults - create space. two blocks of crust pull apart, stretching the crust into a valley. ei. The Basin and Range Province ; East African Rift Zone
3) reverse faults - also called thrust faults. slide one block of crust on top of another. found in collision zones of tectonic plates. ei the Himalayas, the Rocky Mountains
