<Li> Shear zone - a tabular to sheetlike, planar or curviplanar zone composed of rocks that are more highly strained than rocks adjacent to the zone . See also Fault . </Li> <Li> Shield - a large area of exposed Precambrian crystalline igneous and high - grade metamorphic rocks that form tectonically stable areas </Li> <Li> Silcrete - an indurated soil duricrust formed when surface sand and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica . </Li> <Li> Silt - granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar . Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment (also known as suspended load) in a surface water body . It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body . </Li>

The collective term for any process that produces a mountain belt is called