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Campos, C., O. Guzman, A. Pilloud, R. Uzcategui, A. Cabrera, and M. Toro, 2011, Gravelly and sandy facies of Rio Guache Formation, Venezuelan Andes: Evidence for transformation of gravity flows in deep-marine water, in R. M. Slatt and C. Zavala, eds., Sediment transfer from shelf to deep water—Revisiting the delivery system: AAPG Studies in Geology 61, p. 117–128.

DOI:10.1306/13271353St613440

Copyright copy2011 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Gravelly and Sandy Facies of Rio Guache Formation, Venezuelan Andes: Evidence for Transformation of Gravity Flows in Deep-marine Water

Corina Campos,1 Oswaldo Guzman,2 Andres Pilloud,3 Redescal Uzcategui,4 Ana Cabrera,5 Manuel Toro6

1Universidad Simon Bolivar, Edificio de Fisica y Electronica II (FE-II), Departamento de Ciencias de La Tierra, Valle Sartenejas, Baruta, Miranda, Venezuela
2Universidad Simon Bolivar, Edificio de Fisica y Electronica II (FE-II), Departamento de Ciencias de La Tierra, Valle Sartenejas, Baruta, Miranda, Venezuela
3Universidad Simon Bolivar, Edificio de Fisica y Electronica II (FE-II), Departamento de Ciencias de La Tierra, Valle Sartenejas, Baruta, Miranda, Venezuela
4Universidad Simon Bolivar, Edificio de Fisica y Electronica II (FE-II), Departamento de Ciencias de La Tierra, Valle Sartenejas, Baruta, Miranda, Venezuela
5Universidad Simon Bolivar, Edificio de Fisica y Electronica II (FE-II), Departamento de Ciencias de La Tierra, Valle Sartenejas, Baruta, Miranda, Venezuela
6Core Laboratories, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Repsol-YPF, especially Alejandro Franco, Laszlo Benkovics, and Angela Echanove, for financial support. We also thank Servicios Geocinteg C. A. for the collaboration, Max Furrer for his assistance in the biostratigraphic analysis, and A. Alexis, R. Mirian, H. Carelis, Q. Jhon, and O. Christian for their assistance in the field. Carmen Contreras, Carlos Zavala, and the anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments.

ABSTRACT

The Rio Guache Formation represents deep-marine deposits accumulated within a diachronic foreland basin setting formed as a result of the Paleogene oblique collision between the transpressional front of the Caribbean plate and the Cretaceous to Paleogene passive margin of northern South America.

This study attempted to provide the first comprehensive sedimentologic analysis of the Rio Guache Formation in the Guaramacal area. Based on the study of outcrops and samples, eight facies have been identified as composing the Rio Guache Formation, five of them gravelly and three sandy. The facies analysis and the interpretation of the processes of transport and deposition for each of the different facies indicate that they are the products of the progressive transformation of gravity flows within the basin. The distinct assemblages of facies, the high percentage of coarse-grained sediments, the poor textural sorting, and the minor development of sedimentary structures indicate that these gravity flows were short-lived and poorly efficient. They could be the product of episodic mass flows and sliding induced by the high tectonic activity in western Venezuela during the late Paleogene. No direct evidence of a hyperpycnal origin for these coarse-grained strata exists.

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