We examine the seismically-active right-lateral transtensional-extensional Tre Monti Fault (central Apennines, Italy) with structural and geochemical methods and develop a conceptual evolutionary model of extensional faulting with fluid involvement in shallow (≤ 3 km depth) extensional faults in carbonate rocks. In the analysed fault zone, multiscale fault rock structures include injection veins, fluidized ultracataclasite layers, and crackle breccias, suggesting that the fault slipped seismically. We reconstructed the relative chronology of these structures through cross-cutting relationship and cathodoluminescence analyses. We then used C- and O-isotope data from different generations of fault-related mineralizations to show a shift from connate (marine-derived) to meteoric fluid circulation during exhumation from 3 to ≤ 1 km depths and concurrent fluid cooling from ~68 to