The process that causes the movement of older rocks over younger rocks through displacements along a fault is called a thrust fault.

In São Bartolomeu de Messines it is possible to observe a thrust fault represented by metamorphic rocks from Serra do Caldeirão over more recent sedimentary rocks from the Algarve Basin.

Reddish outcrops from the Triassic period (252-201 Ma), corresponding to rocks formed when the continents were together in the supercontinent Pangea, are found beneath the very rocks that formed that supercontinent.

In this outcrop, it is also possible to see slip faults with quartz filaments and muds with gypsum crystals corresponding to the first evaporite manifestation in the history of the Algarve Basin.