Joints, faults and palaeostress evolution in the Campo de Dalias (Betic Cordilleras, southeastern Spain) Diaclases, failles et évolution des paléocontraintes dans le Campo de Dalias (Cordillères bétiques, Sud-Est de l’Espagne)

The Campo de Dalías, located between the central and eastern Betic Cordilleras, shows an evolution determined by the overprinting of two main stress fields since Pliocene times. The first of these develops hybrid and tensional joint sets up to Pleistocene (100 000 yr) and is characterized by NNW–SSE horizontal trend of compression and an ENE–WSW horizontal extension. The second stress field has prolate to triaxial extensional ellipsoids, also with ENE–WSW horizontal extension, and continues to be active today. The most recent stresses produce the reactivation of previous joints as faults whose trends are comprised mainly from N120◦E to N170◦E and have a normal and transtensional regime, with dextral or sinistral components. The palaeostress evolution of this region is similar to that undergone by other basins of the Eastern Betic Cordilleras, although the Pliocene–Pleistocene transcurrent deformations in the Campo de Dalías only develop joints and not strike-slip faults.  2003 Académie des sciences/Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.