%0 Journal Article
%A Bulnes, Mayte
%A Uzkeda Apesteguia, Hodei
%A Poblet, Josep
%A García Zuazua, Iván
%T What do flexural normal faults tell us about fold-and-thrust belts and foredeep flexures? Cantabrian zone (Ibero-Armorican Orocline core) examples
%D 2026
%@ 0191-8141
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126433
%X This work describes how flexural normal faults related to a flexure produced in the foredeep of a fold-and-thrust belt develop, how they can be recognized, especially when they formed in early or intermediate stages of development of the fold-and-thrust belt, what information provide about the fold-and-thrust belt and the foredeep flexure, and different procedures to obtain it. The application of these methodologies to a natural example is shown through the detailed analysis of normal faults preceding the folds and thrusts in the western part of the Cantabrian Zone, the foreland fold-and-thrust belt of the Variscan Orogen in the northwest portion of the Iberian Peninsula. These faults are interpreted as flexural normal faults formed during the fold-and-thrust belt development. The strike of the longitudinal flexural normal faults illustrates the orientation of the old fold-and-thrust belt front, resulting in an arcuate distribution consistent with the geometry of the Ibero-Armorican or Asturian Arc. The low fracturing intensity due to the longitudinal faults indicates that the flexure curvature and the flexure inclined-limb dip were very gentle, and that the flexure interlimb angle was very high. This may suggest that the fold-and-thrust belt weight was low at that time. The timing of these flexural normal faults indicate that the thrusts propagated following a forward-breaking or “piggy-back” sequence, as deduced by other authors employing different methods. Finally, the transverse flexural normal faults are interpreted as a result of large oblique/lateral thrust ramps in some thrust sheets located in the southern part of the Cantabrian Zone.
%~