The post-Eocene Red Breccias (Brocatelli) outcropping around Sohag extend as a separate belt occupying the proximity of a fault-controlled escarpment.
Based on the stratigraphic level and the textural characteristics these breccias are subdivided into three types, clearly separated by paleosol horizons. A- Red breccias 1; composed of massive and crushed deposits accumulated as fault breccias. Its distribution is structurally controlled. It occurs along the N140, N40-60 and N10-20 fault intersections. B) Red breccias 2; occurs as talus composed of scree and landslides accumulations fllanking the Eocene escarpment. The greater part of this could result from seismic shocks which took place along the previously mentioned faults. C; Red breccias 3, accumulated by running water as debris flow-dominated alluvial fans. They comprise four generations of fans sourced from reactivated fault scarps and easterly and northeasterly trending wadis.
Field and petrographic studies have shown that the sediments of red breccias became hard and indurated as a result of the development of caliche carbonates that cemented and encrusted the lithoclasts. This intergrain-caliche crusts and cements have possibly resulted from calcimorphic paleosols cover that separated the red breccias types, as well as due to dissolution and reprecipitation of calcareous materials. These crusts later absorbed the red ferrugenous coloration.
It is believed that the calcimorphic paleosol and the associated caliche crusts as well as red iron pigmentation around breccia clasts have genetically developed during periods of exposure which alternated with intense rain fall and evaporation