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M. A. Cooper
F. T. Addison
R. Alvarez
A. B. Hayward
S. Howe
A. J. Pulham
A. Taborda
BP Exploration (Colombia) Ltd.
Bogotá, Colombia
Abstract
T he Llanos basin lies east of the Eastern Cordillera in northeastern Colombia. Basin development
commenced with a Triassic–Jurassic synrift megasequence related to the separation of North and South
America in the Caribbean. Basin development continued in the Cretaceous as a back-arc megasequence behind
the Andean subduction zone. Marine deposition was abruptly terminated during the early Maastrichtian due
to final accretion of the Western Cordillera.
The accretion of the Western Cordillera created the pre-Andean foreland basin megasequence
(Paleocene–early Miocene), which covered the Magdalena Valley, Eastern Cordillera, and Llanos basin. This
megasequence is dominated by fluviodeltaic strata. The overlying Andean foreland basin megasequence
commenced with deformation in the Central Cordillera and Magdalena Valley. The Andean foreland basin
megasequence also includes the Guayabo Formation, which is a classic molasse sequence shed from the devel-
oping mountains of the Eastern Cordillera as deformation moved eastward into the Llanos foothills. The defor-
mation in the Llanos foothills is a combination of inversion of preexisting extensional faults and thin-skinned
thrusting.
Resumen
INTRODUCTION
The physiography of Colombia is dominated by the
Andes mountains in the western half of the country and
by the Amazon-Orinoco basin in the east. The
Colombian Andes are split into three ranges—the
Western, Central, and Eastern Cordilleras—which to the
south merge into a single range in Ecuador. To the east of
the Eastern Cordillera is Los Llanos, an elevated
savannah that is part of the catchment area for the Rio
Orinoco (Figure 1). Major work that has been done on
the stratigraphy, tectonics, and regional tectonic setting
of Colombia include Hettner (1892), Hubach (1957),
Bürgl (1961), Etayo-Serna (1979), Fabre (1983), McCourt
et al. (1984), Pilger (1984), Aspden and McCourt (1986),
Ben Avraham and Nur (1987), Megard (1987), Pardo-
Casas and Molnar (1987), Burke (1988), Butler and
Schamel (1988), and Montgomery (1992).
The major tectonic events that have influenced the
development of the Llanos basin are all closely tied to the
development of the active margin of western South
America. The regional structural evolution is divisible
into eight major events:
Figure 2—Chronostratigraphic summary diagram for the Llanos basin and foothills based on well and outcrop data. The sea
level curve of Haq et al. (1987) has been adjusted to the BP time scale.
progressively eastward throughout the Tertiary. The resulted in deposition of a series of basal, shallow marine
resulting stratigraphy is a highly punctuated succession and shoreline Cretaceous sandstones, which progres-
of Upper Cretaceous–lower Tertiary strata, representing sively onlapped farther eastward onto the Guyana shield
periodic marginal deposition in major contemporaneous (Figure 2). These sandstones are depositional sequence
depocenters to the west and north. The stratigraphic K50 (Une Formation equivalent) (Hubach, 1931).
record becomes more complete westward in the Eastern In the Turonian–early Coniacian (91–88 Ma), global
Cordillera and the Magdalena Valley, although Tertiary sea level rise (Haq et al., 1987), combined with anoxic
rocks are only sparsely preserved in the Eastern upwelling conditions, resulted in deposition of a succes-
Cordillera because of late Miocene and Pliocene uplift sion of marine mudstones, cherts, and phosphates
and erosion. The following basin evolution model has (Figure 2). These sediments formed an excellent marine
been developed on the basis of available published infor- source rock (sequence K60, Gacheta Formation) (Miller,
mation and by integrating recent BP well, seismic, and 1979) in the Llanos area. This sequence is the equivalent
outcrop data. of prolific source rocks such as the Villeta Shale
Rocks older than the Late Cretaceous include a succes- Formation in the Upper Magdalena Valley (Beltrán and
sion of Paleozoic metamorphic and sedimentary rocks Gallo, 1968) and the La Luna Formation of the Middle
that have only been penetrated in a few wells in the Magdalena Valley and western Venezuela.
Llanos. Triassic–Lower Cretaceous rocks are absent in Sequence K60 deposition was terminated by a fall in
the area except for possible small, localized synrift relative sea level in the Coniacian–early Santonian (88–85
sequences. Upper Cretaceous strata thus generally rest Ma). The Llanos foothills area was on the eastern margin
directly on Paleozoic basement. of the basinal system. Sequences K70 and K80 (which
Upper Cretaceous deposition of the back-arc megase- equate approximately with the Guadalupe; Hettner,
quence was initiated in Cenomanian time (98–91 Ma) 1892) were deposited at this time and represent two
during a regional transgression that drowned the major cycles of eastward shoreline progradation, aggra-
exposed Paleozoic rocks of the Llanos region and dation, and retrogradation. They are dominated by high-
662 Cooper et al.
TYPE LOG SIGNATURE sequence K80 is a shale unit that has been mistakenly
PROPOSED CONVENTIONAL
FORMATION
identified as the Maastrichtian–Paleocene Guaduas
AGE SEQUENCES GAMMA RESISTIVITY
RAY NAMES Formation (Figure 3) (Sarmiento, 1992) in some of the
0m FARALLONES
earlier wells in the Llanos foothills (e.g., Medina-1).
Recently acquired data by BP has conclusively dated
these youngest Cretaceous rocks in the foothills as
Campanian.
PLIOCENE
500 m The final accretion event in the Western Cordillera
UPPER
commenced at the end of the Cretaceous. A relative drop
in sea level, probably linked to the onset of compression
to the west, resulted in a fundamental change in the
T90 nonmarine deposition of the pre-Andean foreland basin
GUAYABO
1000 m
LOWER
boundary.
1500 m
Renewed deposition commenced about 60 Ma in the
late Paleocene in response to a far-reaching transgres-
sion. The Barco Formation (Notestein et al., 1944) forms
the basal transgressive part of sequence T20, which was
2000 m
T80 laid down on a major unconformity surface. It mainly
MIDDLE
MIOCENE
GUADALUPE SHALE
SANTONIAN K70 L. GUADALUPE
deposition included marine-influenced, sand-rich, valley
fill deposits that passed upward into muddier coastal
GACHETA plain sediments. Continued transgression eventually
CONIACIAN-
TURONIAN K60 5000 m SHALES
submerged this middle Mirador alluvial plain and estab-
lished a shallow marine shelf across the Cusiana area.
CENOMANIAN-
ALBIAN
K50 UNE
Offshore muds and sandy bioturbated shoreface progra-
dational cycles punctuated by sand-rich fluvial and
estuarine valley fill deposits comprised latest Eocene
Figure 3—Comparison of stratigraphic schemes for the
Llanos foothills and Llanos basin. The symbols in the deposition, forming the upper part of the Mirador
sequences column are the same as in Figure 5. The Formation. All of the coarser grained sandstones in the
symbols in the stylized resistivity log column indicate the Mirador Formation in the Llanos foothills are extremely
depositional environments and are the same as in Figure 2. mature quartz arenites.
After sequence T30 deposition, four major cycles of
marine-influenced lower coastal plain deposition
energy, quartz-rich shoreface sandstones supplied from occurred in the Llanos basin and foothills (sequences
the Guyana shield to the west and exhibit a widespread T40–T70). These sequences are ~34–16.5 Ma and are
distribution across the Llanos basin and foothills. The traditionally termed the Carbonera Formation (Notestein
Campanian K80 sandstones form the oldest proven et al., 1944). These cycles are bounded by widespread
commercial reservoir unit in the foothills. At the top of maximum flooding surfaces. Each cycle consists of a
Basin Development and Tectonic History of the Llanos Basin, Colombia 663
M
coincided with the first significant deformation and º
SYSTE
72 'W
uplift in the Eastern Cordillera and hence with a signifi- 30
cant loading event that tectonically enhanced the relative
rise in sea level and the highstand systems tract that
F A ULT
RI
O T OCARIA
al., 1944). Evidence for partial emergence of the Eastern
Cordillera is that sequence T80 becomes more sand
prone in the western part of the foothills, suggesting that 72
ºW
there was a supply of coarse clastics derived from the
west.
The final depositional episode in the Llanos was the
El Morro-1
YOPAL
N
GUAICARAMO
deposition of about 3000 m of coarse continental clastics
in sequence T90 (Guayabo Formation) (Hubach, 1957)
from ~10 to 2 Ma ago. This last phase of deposition
YOPAL FAULT
N
5º
marks uplift of the Eastern Cordillera immediately west
of the foothills and migration of the foreland basin axis to
the current location of the Eastern Cordillera foothills
(Figure 2). Deposition of this molasse unit caused rapid Cupiagua-1
ºW Cusiana-4
73 RIO CUSIANA
Leticia-1
STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION AND STYLE CUSIA NA AN TICLINE
NW SE
Guaicaramo Cusiana-4 Cusiana-2A Leticia-1
Fault System Cusiana
Yopal Fault Fault
0 5 10 Km
Figure 5—Cross section through the Cusiana field in the Llanos foothills. See the “proposed sequences” column in Figure 3
for the key to the stratigraphic units.