Young Quaternary fossil graben in the Vistulian less AT Brzezie near Kraków (Carpathian Foredeep, south Poland)

In this pa per we de scribe a fos sil gra ben and as so ci ated nor mal faults and joints. The gra ben is situ ated in the sec tion of the Vis tulian (Wei chse lian) and Holo cene sedi ments in an ar chaeo logi cal ex ca va tion site at Brzezie, in the cen tral part of the Pol ish Car pa thian Fore deep (Wieliczka- Gdów Up land, west ern part of the San dom ierz Ba sin). Nor mal faults strike mostly NNE–SSW and dip steeply about 65–85°. Some of them, namely mas ter nor mal faults, bound the fos sil gra ben. The joints form or thogo nal pat tern and are closely spaced close to the faults. They de vel oped si mul ta ne ously with fault ing. Nor mal fault ing took place dur ing the Vis tulian – Meso holo cene (Neo holo cene?) time, ac cord ing to the age of ar chaeo logi cal ar te facts which were found in the faulted sedi ments. The fault ing was proba bly fin ished dur ing the Neo lithic or even later, dur ing the Bronze Age. The NNE- striking nor mal faults con nected with gra ben for ma tion could have been pro duced by re ac ti va tion of a NE- striking sin is tral re gional fault in the base ment.