High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A detachment fold occurs as layer parallel thrusting along a decollement (or detachment) develops without upward propagation of a fault; the accommodation of the strain produced by thrusting results in the folding of the overlying rock units. As a visual aid, picture a rug on the floor. By placing your foot on one end and pushing toward the other, the rug slides across the floor (decollement) and folds upward (detachment fold). Detachment faulting and folding may occur in either a compressional or extensional environment; though they serve the same purpose, they are controlled by different modes and thus are defined by these modes. Extensional detachment faulting is essentially defined by a low angle normal fault (dip-slip fault), while detachment folding and faulting in compressional settings result from the accommodation of strain. Figure 1, is a generalized representation of the geometry assumed by a detachment fault.