oa Multi-episodic Fault Movements and Karstic Fills Along the Vallès-Penedès Fault, Coastal Catalan Ranges, NE Spain

We describe different fault rocks within a normal fault bordering the Neogene Vallès-Penedès basin in NE Spain. Through this fault, the Lower Cretaceous limestones of the footwall are in contact with the Miocene siliciclastic sediments of the hangingwall. In the Lower Cretaceous protolith, cataclasites and breccias are a mixture of tectonic and karstic products resulting from multi-stages movement and development of the fault. The localisation of frictional processes generated a cohesive fault breccia and the cataclasite during the progressive opening of the hydrological system. Later, when the fault reached the surface, meteoric diagenetic processes leaded to the formation of calcretes and karstic features and generating the breccia with the pisolithic matrix.