1. That part of a staircase thrust trajectory which forms the steeply dipping sections between the flats. Where thrusting occurs in horizontally bedded strata the ramps cut up-section, obliquely to the bedding. A thrust belt may contain several types of ramp, classified as frontal, oblique, and lateral according to their respective perpendicular, oblique, and parallel strike orientations in relation to the main direction of transport.