The Socovos Fault is a long northeast-southwest strike-slip fault crossing the External Betic and Prebetic zones of southeastern Spain, in the borderlands of Albacete, Jaén and Murcia provinces. It runs for well over a hundred kilometres and is one of several major left-lateral structures that segment the Betic mountain belt.
It accommodates left-lateral shear at very low slip rates as Africa converges obliquely with Iberia, and it separates domains with contrasting geological histories. The fault is expressed as a clear lineament in satellite imagery, offsetting rock units and drainage over long distances.
Instrumental seismicity along the Socovos line is modest and diffuse, without a large documented historical rupture, so it is classed as a low-activity but regionally important fault. Researchers include it in Betic hazard models because such long structures can, in principle, host infrequent moderate to strong earthquakes.