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Caribbean Plio-Quaternary (5-0 Ma) Plate Interaction and Basin Development, Colombia-Venezuela-Trinidad Oil Province*
By
R. Higgs1
Search and Discovery Article #30058 (2008)
Posted June 5, 2008
*Adapted from extended abstract prepared for presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, April 20-23, 2008.
Note: This is the third of three related articles by R. Higgs (Search and Discovery Article #30056 (2008), Article #30057 (2008), and Article #30058 (2008)).
1Geoclastica Ltd, Marlborough, United Kingdom
Pre-5 Ma Setting, Western Venezuela
Before the uplift
of the Merida Andes in western Venezuela, sedimentation throughout this region
was occurring in the "Catatumbo-Apure Foreland Basin" since Early Oligocene time
(Higgs, in review, a). Uplift of the Santander Massif by eastward thrusting on
the Mercedes-Caño Tomas Fault
(Figure 1; Paris et al., 2000; Corredor, 2003)
drove the basin subsidence, as shown by marked WSW thickening of the Catatumbo
fill (F.E. Audemard, 1991, isopach maps figs. 14, 15).
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5 Ma Uplift of Merida Andes, Sierra de Perija, Etc. Merida Andes uplift by bivergent thrusting (NW, SE) breached the Catatumbo-Apure Basin and drove new Maracaibo and Barinas foreland basins (Figure 3), as shown by an influx of coarser deposits that thicken toward Merida (Betijoque, Rio Yuca formations). Merida uplift started near 5 Ma, based on three criteria: (1) pre-uplift strata of probable middle Miocene age, preserved as steeply dipping intramontane erosional remnants (La Cope Formation, Figure 2; Macellari, 1984; Higgs et al., 1995); (2) Merida Andes apatite fission-track ages, 17 of 22 samples giving 4.9 Ma and younger (Kohn et al., 1984); and (3) a likely Pliocene age for the Betijoque (e.g., Gonzalez de Juana et al., 1980; F.E. Audemard, 1991), and thus the Rio Yuca also (presumed coeval; LEV, 1997), although these alluvial formations are commonly considered upper Miocene-Pliocene (LEV, 1997). In most previous interpretations, the age of initial orogenic uplift of the Merida Andes is older, generally Miocene, following Giegengack (1984).
Simultaneously, uplift of the Perija, Santa Marta, Lara-Falcon, and
Guajira ranges also occurred. All but Guajira verge mainly NW
(Kellogg, 1984; Boesi and Goddard, 1991; ANH, 2005; Mora and Garcia,
2006). Kellogg (1984) inferred a Pliocene age for the major uplift in
Perija, based on stratigraphic relationships and fission-track ages.
Perija backthrusting (Duerto et al., 2006) was insufficient to assist
Maracaibo basin subsidence, as shown by NW thinning of Mio-Pliocene
isopachs in the basin (F.E. Audemard, 1991, fig. 15). Falcon-Lara
uplift was likewise interpreted as Pliocene by Macellari (1995); here
the thrust front advanced rapidly, reaching as far as Guajira(?)
before the plate-boundary jump at 2.5 Ma (see below), suggesting
detachment on the easy-slip Carib Halite,
within the Cretaceous rift fill (Higgs, 2008b, Triassic-Recent
development). During this Pliocene thrust advance, the Burro
Negro The Pliocene orogenic uplift promoted deep circulation of meteoric water, such that halite-dissolution subsidence locally outweighed uplift, forming the La Gonzalez, Gulf of Venezuela, Lower Guajira, Carora, and Cesar-Rancheria supraorogenic basins (Figure 3; Higgs, 2006; Higgs, in review, b). This
regional shortening starting near 5 Ma is attributed to jamming of
the South Caribbean
Caribbean-South America Plate Boundary Jump Some time
after the 5 Ma start of subduction choking, resistance to the
distributed shortening described above, and also to shortening in the
Eastern Cordillera (Dengo and Covey, 1993), driven by the collision
against South America of the Panama Arc at the rear of the Caribbean
Plate (Figure 3), forced a plate reorganization. The Caribbean assumed
its current eastward relative motion (c. 085 degrees), as measured by
GPS studies (Perez et al., 2001; Weber et al., 2001; Trenkamp et al.,
2002). The plate boundary jumped inboard, from the S Caribbean-Roques-S
Grenada Basin-Testigos-Bajos-Trinidad S coast By virtue
of the plate-boundary jump, a region named the Northern Andes Block
(NAB; Higgs, in review, a) was annexed by the Caribbean Plate and now
moves essentially east with that plate (Perez et al., 2001; Trenkamp
et al., 2002). The NAB is bordered in the far south by an uncertain
plate-boundary sector (Molnar and Sykes, 1969; Paris et al., 2000),
probably the ENE-trending oblique-dextral Ibague Two of
the plate-boundary sectors, namely the Eastern Cordillera Frontal and
Bocono faults, are currently dextral thrusts, reflecting their NE
trend, relative to eastward Caribbean Plate motion. A kink, not shown
in Figure 1, in the Bocono
Dating of Caribbean Plate-Motion Change At least eight geological indicators across northern South America indicate that the change from southeastward to eastward Caribbean motion, relative to South America, occurred in Late Pliocene time (c. 2.5 Ma): (1) Accelerated uplift of the Eastern Cordillera and Merida Andes in late Pliocene or early Quaternary time, due to focusing of the plate boundary (previously a 500 km-wide belt of distributed shortening) upon this bivergent thrust belt, where thrusting changed from orthogonal to dextral. Intense uplift of the Eastern Cordillera starting in late Pliocene time is indicated by tilting of the Middle Magdalena Basin and by palynological studies in the Bogota Basin (Van der Hammen et al., 1973; Gomez et al., 2003; Torres et al., 2005). In the Merida Andes, the start of faster uplift is approximately dated by an influx of (?Plio-) Quaternary conglomerates on both flanks (Carvajal, Guanapa formations; LEV, 1997). A relatively recent start of rapid uplift is also consistent with (A) survival of erosional remnants, at high altitude near Merida, of a paleosoil formed at much lower elevations (Giegengack, 1984), and (B) insufficient altitude for glaciation until late Pleistocene time (Schubert and Vivas, 1993). (2) The Plio-Quaternary age of the Cariaco pull-apart basin, at the San Sebastian-El Pilar stepover (Figure 1; Schubert, 1982; Goddard, 1988; Jaimes and Mann, 2003). Plio-Quaternary deposits here are much thicker than underlying upper Miocene deposits (Goddard, 1988), consistent with post-2.5 Ma pull apart superimposed on post-11 Ma halite-dissolution subsidence in this and the encompassing Barcelona Bay-Tortuga Platform area (Higgs, 2006; Higgs, in review, b). (3) Calculated E-W pull-apart extension of 50 km in the Gulf of Paria (Weber, 2005), equating to the current relative plate velocity of 2 cm/yr (Weber et al., 2001) for 2.5 m.y. (4)
Restoration of the shelf edge east of Trinidad (e.g., Case and
Holcombe, 1980) into near alignment (NW-SE) by removing an assumed 50
km of dextral offset along trend with the Central Range (5)
Quaternary (and late Pliocene?) subsidence of the Nariva Swamp in
Trinidad (e.g., Kugler, 1961), attributable to transpression on the
adjacent NNW-dipping Central Range (6)
Alignment of the Roques and Testigos Faults with, respectively, the
Urica and Los Bajos Faults, by restoring 50 km of dextral slip on the
El Pilar (7)
Restoration of the Maracaibo block "out of the way" of Villa de Cura
nappe southeastward emplacement (Figure 3; cf. Pimentel, 1984), by
moving it west by the same 50 km. Calculated apparent dextral offset
along the Bocono (8) Three other lines of evidence that the preceding southeastward Caribbean relative motion lasted until at least Pliocene time: (i) The pronounced expression of the South Caribbean accretionary prism on bathymetric and seismic profiles (Silver et al., 1975), with thrusts reaching up into the interpreted Pliocene section (Ruiz et al., 2000; Flinch et al., 2003). However, even the frontal thrusts terminate below the Quaternary (Flinch et al., 2003, fig. 2), consistent with accretion ending at 2.5 Ma. (ii) The southeasterly overall trend of the Barbados accretionary prism southern lateral edge, east of Trinidad (e.g., Mascle and Moore, 1990, fig. 1). (iii) The kilometric Pliocene subsidence of Columbus Channel foredeep (Di Croce et al., 1999).
The
change to eastward Caribbean relative motion ended thrust-belt
shortening in southern Trinidad, thereby terminating the driving
mechanism of the Caribbean foreland basin
(Higgs, 2008a, 2008b). However, east of Maturin city (Figure 1), the Caribbean foreland basin has been buried by further subsidence
(Deltana-Columbus Channel Basin and southern Columbus Basin; also area
of "Reciente" outcrop of Pimentel, 1984). This is interpretable as
compactional subsidence, combined in the southern Columbus Basin with
eastward gravitational extension toward the Atlantic Ocean floor (Bevan,
2007). West of Maturin, eastern and central Venezuela have been
rebounding for progressively longer westward (hence "Pleistoceno" and
steadily older outcrop westward; Pimentel 1984), reflecting the
eastward migration of the Caribbean nappe suture point, whereby the
Caribbean load was diachronously severed by eastward lengthening of
the South Caribbean
Caribbean Plate Velocity Relative to the Mantle The Caribbean Plate is moving east relative to South America at about the same rate (c. 2 cm/yr) that South America drifts west relative to the mantle; hence the Caribbean Plate is essentially stationary in the mantle reference frame (Pindell et al., 2006). These conditions are presumed (Higgs, in review, a) to have applied since the 2.5 Ma plate-motion change. Between the 2.5 reorganization and the one at 72 Ma (late Campanian; Higgs, 2008a, 2008b), the velocity of the Caribbean leading edge relative to South America can be calculated, over two consecutive sectors: (1) Ecuador to Guajira corner, amounting to about 1100 km of eastward travel between 72 and 35 Ma (i.e., 2.5 cm/yr); followed by (2) Guajira corner to the Paria Peninsula tip, totaling about 1100 km of SE travel between 35 and 2.5 Ma (3.5 cm/yr; i.e., eastward component 2.5 cm/yr). Simultaneously, the Americas drifted west relative to the mantle at 2-3 cm/year throughout Cenozoic time (Pindell et al., 2006). Thus, Caribbean average eastward absolute velocity has never exceeded 0.5 cm/yr since 72 Ma. This is slower than typical trench rollback rates (1-2 cm/yr; Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni, 2006); therefore, the arc may have varied between "extensional" and "neutral" in the Dewey (1980) classification.
The proposed younger age of Merida uplift (5 Ma), and the younger switch (2.5 Ma) to Caribbean-South America transcurrence, among other concepts presented here, have important implications for petroleum exploration in NW Colombia, Venezuela and Trinidad, affecting predictions and models of paleogeography (sand depositional fairways), burial/heat-flow history (organic maturation), timing of structuration, etc..
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