Multiphase structural evolution of the western margin of the Girardot subbasin, Upper Magdalena Valley, Colombia

More than 1400 km of two-dimensional seismic data were used to understand the geometries and structural evolution along the western margin of the Girardot Basin in the Upper Magdalena Valley. Horizons are calibrated against 50 wells and surface geological data (450 km of traverses). At the surface, low-angle dipping Miocene strata cover the central and eastern margins. The western margin is dominated by a series of en echelon synclines that expose Cretaceous–Oligocene strata. Most synclines are NNE–NE trending, whereas bounding thrusts are mainly NS oriented. Syncline margins are associated mostly with west-verging fold belts. These thrusts started deformation as early as the Eocene but were moderately to strongly reactivated during the Andean phase. The Girardot Basin fill records at least four stratigraphic sequences limited by unconformities. Several periods of structural deformation and uplifting and subsidence have affected the area. An early Tertiary deformation event is truncated by an Eocene unconformity along the western margin of the Girardot Basin. An Early Oligocene–Early Miocene folding and faulting event underlies the Miocene unconformity along the northern and eastern margin of the Girardot Basin. Finally, the Late Miocene–Pliocene Andean deformation folds and erodes the strata along the margins of the basin against the Central and Eastern Cordilleras.     

Regional provenance from southwestern Colombia fore‐arc and intra‐arc basins: implications for Middle to Late Miocene orogeny in the Northern Andes

Andean orogenic processes controlled the spatial and temporal distribution of the magmatic and sedimentary record. This contribution integrates new U/Pb zircon ages, heavy mineral analyses and biostratigraphic constraints from the Neogene sedimentary record of the fore‐arc and intra‐arc basins and volcano‐plutonic rocks of southwestern Colombia, to reconstruct these orogenic processes. The results reveal continuous arc magmatism since the Late Oligocene, with a major post‐Middle Miocene magmatic peak and exhumation. When integrated with other geological constraints, the tectonic evolution of the margin includes Eocene‐Oligocene oblique convergence with limited magmatic activity, followed by the initiation of a Late Oligocene‐Early Miocene arc that migrated to the east in the Middle Miocene, when it experienced a major increase in magmatic activity, crustal deformation, exhumation and thickening. This orogenic evolution is related to the shallowing of the slab dip due to the subduction of the Neogene Nazca Plate.     

Geomorphic evidence of active deformation and uplift in a modern continental wedge-top–foredeep transition: Example of the eastern Ecuadorian Andes

The eastern Ecuadorian Andes appear as a fold-and-thrust belt adjacent to a continental foredeep represented by one of the world's largest tropical alluvial megafans, the Pastaza megafan, debouching into the Amazonian lowland. The apex of the Pliocene–Pleistocene megafan situated in the present-day wedge top (Subandean Zone) has been cut by an erosion surface, the western part of which has been uplifted of 500 m along the frontal thrust, forming a poorly dissected plateau, the Mera plateau. This erosion surface erased most of the previous fluvial landscape but preserved a large thrust-related anticlinal hinge deforming less erodible underlying strata, the Mirador fold and smaller-sized anticlines. This surface has been then incised by two antecedent major rivers, the Pastaza and the Napo, and few tributaries. The plateau edge is marked by a series of large scale gently sloping landslides clustered along a 70 km long concave eastward line associated with the frontal thrust fault. The newly formed immature rivers issued from the landslides or sourced within east-dipping remnants of the erosion surface downstream of the landslide line constitute the greatest part of the streams feeding the Ecuadorian Amazonian basin. At 70 to 100 km from the landslide line, the drainage abruptly changes from highly immature to mature with a well-defined hinge line representing the outer limit of landslide and tectonic control. The diversions of the Pastaza River indicate ongoing fold growth since at least the late Pleistocene in the Eastern Cordillera, and the early Holocene in the Mera plateau. The preserved terraces of the Pastaza valley are all degradational and are ascribed to periods of tectonic (seismic) activity alternating with periods of tectonic quiescence or decreased seismic activity rather than to climatic events. ¹⁴C dating of the plateau erosion surface and of the upper Pastaza terraces indicates that the minimum average incision rate since 18,000 years BP varies locally in the upper Pastaza valley from 0.5 to 0.67 cm year⁻¹ , increasing from 18,000 years BP to now. A comparison of these incision rates with fold-and-thrust fault uplift rates indicates that incision in the upper Pastaza valley was a result of rapid uplift (up to 1 cm year⁻¹) along the Mirador fold-and-thrust which caused a restoration of the local equilibrium profile of the upper reach, combined with smaller local fault uplift along the westernmost thrust faults. The uplift of the whole Mera plateau with respect to the upper Amazonian basin gives a minimum average uplift rate of 2.8 cm year⁻¹ since 18,000 years BP. The overall uplift of the Mera plateau and the Eastern Cordillera is likely to have been caused by a regional-scale low angle thrust ramp emerging as the frontal thrust fault.     

Les ensembles fluviatiles néogènes du bassin subandin d'Équateur et implications dynamiquesThe Neogene fluvial systems of the Ecuadorian foreland basin and dynamic inferences

A sedimentological study of the Neogene continental infill of the Subandean foreland basin of Ecuador led us to define an evolution of the fluvial system from an alluvial plain to an alluvial fan with an increasing slope in the same time as the drainage changed from mostly longitudinal to transverse. Combined with the data presently available on palaeotopography, exhumation, tectonic evolution and geomorphology, these results enable us to infer that, in contrast with the other Subandean foreland basins of Bolivia and Peru, the progradation of the Neogene alluvial fans proceeded by an overall expansion, associated with a relatively small tectonic shortening and not as a result of the development of successive thrust-related depocentres. This also indicates that the surrection of the Cordillera progressed in Ecuador throughout the Neogene. To cite this article: F. Christophoul et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 1029–1037.