Attention: the geosite is on the edge of the train line, so avoid accidents and observe the fault from the road in GPS: 39.644249, -7.693127.

Access from:

- Vilas Ruivas (about 1.6 km) follow a dirt road towards the river / railway line.

If you travel by train on the Beira Baixa line to Vila Velha de Ródão, the fault is on the left, about 2.4 km before the railway station.

Geossite GPS: 39.6444444, -7.6930556

The Ponsul fault is an important active fault (with seismic activity), having about 120 km and more than 300 million years that extends from Arneiro to Spain, and being in the origin of the boiling springs of Monfortinho.

In the Beira Baixa railway line slope we can observe this fault and its effects on Paleozoic schists and quartzites, including breccia fault, fault gouge and spline fault polish.

Breccia - rock formed by gravel-sized particles that are angular in shape and bind by a cement. It may have sedimentary, tectonic, volcanic or impact origin (due to a meteorite).

Fault polish – rock surface polished by the movements of the walls of the fault.

Fault –cracks in the Earth's crust where movement occurs on at least one side.

Fault gouge - accumulated crushed rock debris produced by the rocks movement (friction) on each side of a fault.

Paleozoic - era of geologic time lasting from 540 to 250 million years ago.

Quartzite - metamorphic rock consisting largely of interlocking quartz grains.

Tectonics - study of the rocks deformation that make up the Earth's crust and the forces that produce such deformations at a global scale.