Geology of Colombia refers to the geological composition of the Republic of Colombia that determines its geography. Most of the emerged territory of Colombia covers vast areas within the South American Plate, whereas much submerged territory lies within the Caribbean Plate and the Nazca Plate.
As in the rest of South America, a combination of external and internal tectonic, volcanic, and glacial forces over the eons formed Colombia's present-day geology. [1] Island-like outcrops of metamorphic rocks in the eastern Llanos are visible remnants of Precambrian times. During the 289-million-year-long Paleozoic Era, which began 539 million years ago, the ocean invaded the area which is exposed in Colombia's Andean zone, as subterranean volcanic eruptions in the western part of the country spouted lava. [1] In the Triassic Period of the 186-million-year-long Mesozoic Era, which began 252 million years ago, the sea that occupied the Andean zone separated into two parts after the Cordillera Central rose. [1] Large layers of sedimentary rock were deposited during the Jurassic Period, which ended with great igneous activity. [1] During the Cretaceous Period, the sea to the east of the Cordillera Central extended to Putumayo region in the south, while subterranean volcanic activity continued to the west of the Cordillera Central. [1] During the Cenozoic Era, which began about 66 million years ago, the seas withdrew from most of Colombia's territory, and enormous granite masses formed along the Cordillera Occidental. [1] The three cordilleras began to take shape 12 million years ago. [1] The Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Central form the western and eastern sides of a massive crystalline arch, which extends from the Caribbean lowlands to the southern border of Ecuador. [1] The Cordillera Oriental, however, is composed of folded stratified rocks overlying a crystalline core. [1]
Tectonic movement of the cordilleras continues today, as evidenced by frequent seismic activity. [1] Indeed, Colombia remains part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an active seismic area that surrounds the Pacific basin. [1] The country is located where three lithospheric plates—Nazca, Caribbean, and South American—converge, and their movement produces different types of geologic faults. [1] Almost all of the country's many earthquakes in recent centuries have occurred in the mountainous and coastal regions. [1] Recent major earthquakes include those in Popayán on March 31, 1983, and in the nation's coffee-growing belt on January 25, 1999; and one on March 6, 1987, on the border with Ecuador, measuring 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale. [1] Recent earthquakes that struck Colombia's Pacific coast areas have included one accompanied by a tsunami in Tumaco, Nariño Department, on December 12, 1979, measuring 7.9 on the Richter magnitude scale, the largest in northwestern South America since 1942; another on November 15, 2004, with a magnitude of 6.7; and one on September 10, 2007, measuring 6.8. [1] Although construction standards are high for new buildings in the main cities, smaller cities and rural zones are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. [1]
Colombia is formed by two great territorial zones, one submerged in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea covering a total area of 828,660 km2 and the second is the emerged land which is formed by the Andes mountain range and the Llanos plains that are shared with Venezuela and cover an area of some 1'143,748 km2.
In the emerged zone the region is washed by numerous rivers that include the Meta, Vichada and the Inirida rivers which contribute to other major rivers like the Orinoco River, Vaupés River, Caquetá River, Putumayo River and Apaporis River. This Llanos region is also divided into three subregions;
The northern area characterized by its wavy plains similar to a savanna and located between the Andes mountain range and the Guiana Shield formed during the Tertiary mostly covered with sand and clay, while the rivers contributed with sedimentary elements from the Andes during the Quaternary.
The second region is located in the central area of the Llanos with a more wavy topography and formations elevated like the Alto del Vaupés or the Serranía de la Macarena mountain range, isolated in the middle of the plains and towards the Guyana Shield.
The southern area is made up by most of the Putumayo and Amazon River basins, while the topography is flatter than the other two regions, this area is covered by dense jungle and makes up most of the Amazon Region of Colombia.
The Andean Region of Colombia is the other emerged area of the two areas that compose the geology of Colombia. This area originated after a complex geological development that started in the Paleozoic era when the Nazca Plate collapsed with the South American Plate pushing it under the Caribbean Plate that created volcanic islands off the Pacific coast off Colombia and the isthmus of Panama. The Colombian Massif, near the border with Ecuador formed and split into three mountain ranges: Cordillera Central (central mountain range), Cordillera Oriental (Eastern mountain range) and the Cordillera Occidental (Western mountain range), each product of three different formation processes and divided from one another by valleys.
The Cordillera Oriental was the most recently formed mountain range of the three, developing by the end of the Tertiary period and consisting mostly of sedimentary elements. The formation of the Cordillera Oriental covered the continental platform with pelagic sediments with Precambrian and Paleozoic metamorphic rocks bases. The area of the Bogotá Savanna and the highland of Cundinamarca and Boyacá tableland. To the northeast the volcanic metamorphic formed massif in Santander and Norte de Santander formed the Andes in Venezuela and the mountain ranges of Perijá and Motilones, between the border of Colombia and Venezuela during the Pleistocene and added sedimentary rocks during the Mesozoic.
The Cordillera Central formed from the Guyana shield during the Paleozoic era with intrusions from granite and metamorphism. To the west presents basic volcanic rocks from the end of the Cretaceous period and diorite intrusive rocks from the Tertiary. To the west there are metamorphic Paleozoic rocks and two major massifs in Ibagué and the Serranía de San Lucas. Another important formation is the Baudó Mountains to the west of the country.
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is 8,900 km (5,530 mi) long and 200 to 700 km wide and has an average height of about 4,000 m (13,123 ft). The Andes extend from South to North through seven South American countries: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
The Republic of Colombia is situated largely in the north-west of South America, with some territories falling within the boundaries of Central America. It is bordered to the north-west by Panama; to the east by Brazil and Venezuela; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and it shares maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
The Nazca Plate or Nasca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru–Chile Trench, of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the Andean orogeny. The Nazca Plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate and to the south by the Antarctic Plate through the East Pacific Rise and the Chile Rise, respectively. The movement of the Nazca Plate over several hotspots has created some volcanic islands as well as east-west running seamount chains that subduct under South America. Nazca is a relatively young plate in terms of the age of its rocks and its existence as an independent plate, having been formed from the breakup of the Farallon Plate about 23 million years ago. The oldest rocks of the plate are about 50 million years old.
The Cordillera Occidental is the lowest in elevation of the three branches of the Colombian Andes. The average altitude is 2,000 m (6,600 ft) and the highest peak is Cerro Tatamá at 4,100 m (13,500 ft). The range extends from south to north dividing from the Colombian Massif in Nariño Department, passes north through Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Chocó, and Caldas Departments to the Paramillo Massif in Antioquia and Córdoba Departments. The cordillera is paralleled on the east by the Cauca river. From this massif the range divides further to form the Serranías de Ayapel, San Jerónimo and Abibe. Only to recede into the Caribbean plain and the Sinú River valley.
The Chilean Coastal Range is a mountain range that runs from north to south along the Pacific coast of South America parallel to the Andean Mountains, extending from Morro de Arica in the north to Taitao Peninsula, where it ends at the Chile Triple Junction, in the south. The range has a strong influence on the climate of Chile since it produces a rain shadow to the east. Because of this the vegetation growing on the seaward slopes is much more exuberant than in the interior. Compared to the coastal lowlands and the Intermediate Depression, it is sparsely populated with land use varying from protected areas to grazing and silviculture. The range is present in all Chilean regions, except for Coquimbo Region and Magallanes Region.
The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is formed as a result of subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South American Plate. The belt is subdivided into four main volcanic zones which are separated by volcanic gaps. The volcanoes of the belt are diverse in terms of activity style, products, and morphology. While some differences can be explained by which volcanic zone a volcano belongs to, there are significant differences within volcanic zones and even between neighboring volcanoes. Despite being a type location for calc-alkalic and subduction volcanism, the Andean Volcanic Belt has a broad range of volcano-tectonic settings, as it has rift systems and extensional zones, transpressional faults, subduction of mid-ocean ridges and seamount chains as well as a large range of crustal thicknesses and magma ascent paths and different amounts of crustal assimilations.
Because of its natural structure, Colombia can be divided into six distinct natural regions. These consist of the Andean Region, covering the three branches of the Andes mountains found in Colombia; the Caribbean Region, covering the area adjacent to the Caribbean Sea; the Pacific Region adjacent to the Pacific Ocean; the Orinoquía Region, part of the Llanos plains mainly in the Orinoco river basin along the border with Venezuela; the Amazon Region, part of the Amazon rainforest; and finally the Insular Region, comprising the islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Colombia is located in South America.
The geology of Chile is a characterized by processes linked to subduction, such as volcanism, earthquakes, and orogeny. The building blocks of Chile's geology were assembled during the Paleozoic Era when Chile was the southwestern margin of the supercontinent Gondwana. In the Jurassic, Gondwana began to split, and the ongoing period of crustal deformation and mountain building known as the Andean orogeny began. In the Late Cenozoic, Chile definitely separated from Antarctica, and the Andes experienced a significant rise accompanied by a cooling climate and the onset of glaciations.
The Venezuelan Andes also simply known as the Andes in Venezuela, are a mountain system that form the northernmost extension of the Andes. They are fully identified, both by their geological origin as by the components of the relief, the constituent rocks and the geological structure.
The Andean orogeny is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along the western margin of South America. On a continental scale the Cretaceous and Oligocene were periods of re-arrangements in the orogeny. The details of the orogeny vary depending on the segment and the geological period considered.
The geology of Bolivia comprises a variety of different lithologies as well as tectonic and sedimentary environments. On a synoptic scale, geological units coincide with topographical units. The country is divided into a mountainous western area affected by the subduction processes in the Pacific and an eastern lowlands of stable platforms and shields. The Bolivian Andes is divided into three main ranges; these are from west to east: the Cordillera Occidental that makes up the border to Chile and host several active volcanoes and geothermal areas, Cordillera Central once extensively mined for silver and tin and the relatively low Cordillera Oriental that rather than being a range by its own is the eastern continuation of the Central Cordillera as a fold and thrust belt. Between the Occidental and Central Cordillera the approximately 3,750-meter-high Altiplano high plateau extends. This basin hosts several freshwater lakes, including Lake Titicaca as well as salt-covered dry lakes that bring testimony of past climate changes and lake cycles. The eastern lowlands and sub-Andean zone in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija Departments was once an old Paleozoic sedimentary basin that hosts valuable hydrocarbon reserves. Further east close to the border with Brazil lies the Guaporé Shield, made up of stable Precambrian crystalline rock.
The geology of North America is a subject of regional geology and covers the North American continent, the third-largest in the world. Geologic units and processes are investigated on a large scale to reach a synthesized picture of the geological development of the continent.
The Altiplano Basin is a sedimentary basin within the Andes in Bolivia and Peru. The basin is located on the Altiplano plateau between the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. Over-all the basin has evolved through time in a context of horizontal shortening of Earth's crust. The great thickness of the sediments accumulated in the basin is mostly the result of the erosion of Cordillera Oriental.
The Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault or Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault System is a major oblique transpressional sinistral strike-slip fault in the departments of Magdalena, Cesar, Norte de Santander and Santander in northern Colombia. The fault system is composed of two main outcropping segments, named Santa Marta and Bucaramanga Faults, and an intermediate Algarrobo Fault segment in the subsurface. The system has a total length of 674 kilometres (419 mi) and runs along an average north-northwest to south-southeast strike of 341 ± 23 from the Caribbean coast west of Santa Marta to the northern area of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes.
The Eastern Frontal Fault System is a megaregional system of oblique and thrust faults cross-cutting Colombia from Ecuador in the south to Venezuela in the north. The system from south to north covers ten out of 32 departments of Colombia; Nariño, Putumayo, Cauca, Huila, Caquetá, Cundinamarca, Meta, Boyacá, Casanare and Arauca. The Eastern Frontal Fault System underlies and affects the capitals of Putumayo, Mocoa, Caquetá, Florencia, Meta, Villavicencio and Casanare, Yopal. The fault system has a total length of 921.4 kilometres (572.5 mi) with a cumulative length of the faults of 1,821.8 kilometres (1,132.0 mi) and runs along an average northeast to southwest strike of 042.1 ± 19 bordering and crossing the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The fault system forms the boundary between the North Andes microplate and the South American Plate.
The Romeral Fault System is a megaregional system of major parallel and anastomosing faults in the Central Ranges of the Colombian Andes and the Cauca, Amagá, and Sinú-San Jacinto Basins. The system spans across ten departments of Colombia, from northeast to south Bolívar, Sucre, Córdoba, Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío, Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Nariño. The fault zone extends into Ecuador where it is known as the Peltetec Fault System. The in detail described part of the Romeral Fault System south of Córdoba has a total length of 697.4 kilometres (433.3 mi) with a cumulative length of 1,787.9 kilometres (1,110.9 mi) and runs along an average north to south strike of 017.6 ± 16, cross-cutting the central-western portion of Colombia.
The Ibagué Fault is a major dextral slightly oblique strike-slip fault in the department of Tolima in central Colombia. The fault has a total length of 123.9 kilometres (77.0 mi) and runs along an average east-northeast to west-southwest strike of 067.9 ± 11 cross-cutting the Central Ranges of the Colombian Andes.
The geology of Venezuela includes ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic basement rocks, layered with sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic and thick geologically recent Cenozoic sediments with extensive oil and gas.
The geology of Peru includes ancient Proterozoic rocks, Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and numerous basins and the Andes Mountains formed in the Cenozoic.
The Llanos Basin or Eastern Llanos Basin is a major sedimentary basin of 96,000 square kilometres (37,000 sq mi) in northeastern Colombia. The onshore foreland on Mesozoic rift basin covers the departments of Arauca, Casanare and Meta and parts of eastern Boyacá and Cundinamarca, western Guainía, northern Guaviare and southeasternmost Norte de Santander. The northern boundary is formed by the border with Venezuela, where the basin grades into the Barinas-Apure Basin.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .| Gold |          | |
|---|---|---|
| Silver | ||
| Platinum | ||
| Nickel | ||
| Coltan | ||
| Emeralds | ||
| Coal | ||
| Salt | ||
| Sources | ||
Sedimentary basins of Colombia | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onshore |
|      | ||||||
| Offshore | ||||||||
| Source | Barrero, Dario; Pardo, Andrés; Vargas, Carlos A.; Martínez, Juan F. (2007). Colombian Sedimentary Basins: Nomenclature, Boundaries and Petroleum Geology, a New Proposal. ANH. pp. 1–92. | |||||||
| Tectonic plates |    | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terranes | |||||||||||
| Terrane-bounding fault systems |
| ||||||||||
| Intraterrane faults |
| ||||||||||
| Major earthquakes | |||||||||||
| Orogenies | |||||||||||
| Other topics | |||||||||||
| Sources | Paris, Gabriel; Machette, Michael N.; Dart, Richard L.; Haller, Kathleen M. (2000). Map and Database of Quaternary Faults and Folds in Colombia and its Offshore Regions (PDF). USGS. pp. 1–66. Retrieved 2017-06-20. Gómez Tapias, Jorge; Montes Ramírez, Nohora E.; Almanza Meléndez, María F.; Alcárcel Gutiérrez, Fernando A.; Madrid Montoya, César A.; Diederix, Hans (2015). Geological Map of Colombia. Servicio Geológico Colombiano. pp. 1–212. Retrieved 2019-10-29. Various authors (2014). Enciclopedia de desastres naturales históricos de Colombia (PDF). Universidad del Quindío. pp. 1–21. Retrieved 2017-06-20. | ||||||||||
| Western Ranges |    | |
|---|---|---|
| Central Ranges | ||
| Eastern Ranges | ||
| Other | ||
| Source | ||
