Late Jurassic syn-extensional sedimentary deposition and Cenozoic basin inversion as recorded in The Girón Formation, northern Andes of Colombia

Abstract

The Yariguíes Anticlinorium, a regional structure located at the western flank of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, includes the thickest record of continental sedimentary rocks accumulated near to the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. The sedimentary rocks are lithoarenites and feldspathic arenites, grouped in the Girón Formation, and deposited in a Late Jurassic extensional basin interpreted in this work as a rift basin. We analysed the sedimentologic and compositional characteristics of two sections that accumulated in a complex rift system. We identified important thickness variations, from 3,350 m in the type section to at least 525 m in a reference section in the Zapatoca area, as well as petrographic and lithofacies changes. This led us to confirm that the Girón Formation encompasses all the continental facies, whose source rock correspond mainly to the exhumed blocks of the Santander Massif during the Late Jurassic. The synrift successions were segmented by transverse structures and regional longitudinal faults of the rift-shoulder, as the Suárez Fault. The tectonic frame of the study area shows the relevance of the W-E compressional regimes, explaining the local kinematics as a heritage of the former configuration and tectonic inversion of the basins. However, clockwise rotation of the stress field was detected from the stress tensor analysis. The latest orientation of the stress tensors and shear joints are related to the effect of the transpressional Bucaramanga and Lebrija faults along the study area.