How does the position of a hanging wall relative to the footwall give evidence of the stress placed on a rock layer?

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The stress is creating rigid lines which will separate the form eventually just  like an earthquake does. Depending on the relationship of one or more strata on both sides of the fault, it can be determined if the fault is a normal or a reverse fault. If linear objects on the surface, like fence lines, streets, sidewalks, railroad lines, have been displaced mostly horizontally with little vertical displacement, the fault is a strike-slip fault. Depending on the rock types and minerals along the fault, it can be determined whether the stress was compressional or extensional. How the mineral grains fracture along the fault of the different strata, whether the stress capacity and strain limits (change in geometrical shape or volume) of individual crystals were exceeded or not can be determined.