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
