Neotectonic activity on the Carcavai fault zone (Algarve, Portugal)

• Author(s): Ressurreição, Ricardo ; Cabral, João ; Dias, Ruben P. ; Carvalho, João P. G. ; Pinto, Carlos C.
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.9/2216
• Origin: Repositório do LNEG
• Subject(s): Neotectónica; Deformação; Fracturas; Falha de Carcavai (Portugal); Algarve (Portugal)
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Studies performed on the Carcavai fault zone, Eastern Algarve, revealed several deformational features in Plio-Quaternary sediments with potential neotectonic implications. These features include fracturing (faults and joints) and clastic dikes, located along the Carcavai fault. Most of the fractures appear to be the expression of the fault activity affecting the Plio-Quaternary sediments. This is suggested by a consistent strike, subparallel to the major tectonic structure, and by the location pattern. Evidences of the fault activity were also identified in the Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks, though the age of that deformation is poorly constrained. It consists in the presence of zones of intensely brecciated rock and of adjoining coarse sedimentary deposits probably related to the dismantling of a fault scarp. The acquired data point to a late hercynian structure, reactivated as a left-lateral strike-slip fault with a thrust component during the Plio-Quaternary.