Fault of El Tordell (Súria)

The detachment fault of El Tordell (Súria) is the NE end of the long anticline of Súria that goes on 25 km west. The picture shows it as seen from the road of Les Vilaredes. The rock layers of the block south -which are displayed in light grey color on the right of the picture- have sliped over the block north -almost horizontal, in red color, on the left-. The salt from geological formation Cardona has flown through the diapiric break of El Tordell.

In the Cadener river basin, in Pla de Reguant south from Súria village, the salt is only covered by the sediments of the river. In the shown section of the fault, grey mudstones and gypsum get the surface in the diapiric break. These are the rock stratums that lie on the salt. Therefore, from time to time there are collapses near to the fault of Tordell after the water solution of gypsum, common salt or carnalite. In the complex tectonics of Súria with its two big faults, Migmón and El Tordell, there is the takeover between the anticline of Súria that goes W-SW and the anticline of Balsareny that goes E-NE.

[photo Jordi Badia]