Im not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I didnt see a general geology section....or new person's stupid questions section either :)

So Ive been learning about geological maps among many other things on my own and I noticed that there seems to be some significance given to faults in general geology and rockhounding. Could someone tell me why? What does a fault signify to a rockhounder? Why do geologists document every little one of them?

Yak,
Man, that is a subject that deserves a book. Faults are what make the ridges that make the mountains. Short story- there is an old mine west of here that, in the past, produced some beautiful wire gold.
As the miners drove the tunnel in, the vein they were following just stopped. A small fault sheared off the vein and moved it in an unknown direction. No real way to tell which direction it moved.
The miners did try to find where it went but were never successful and, in the end, gave up. I suppose you could enlarge the tunnel end but the amount of rock to move made it uneconomical for them.
A nasty fault could break ya.

Gotcha, thanks!

It might also refer to the "faulting and folding" as some usgs geo reports say. In that case it's where the layers are folded in whichever direction and faults will occur as the layers weaken at the folds, which also may allow gases from below to escape which usually causes mineralization and the surrounding rocks to change. There are gases and magma under great pressures and they always find the weak "faults in folded layers".
If your finding minerals there is a fault.