Noreán Formation

The Noreán Formation (Spanish: Formación Noreán, J1-2n,[2][3] J1n)[4] is a geological formation of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, the Serranía de San Lucas and as basement underlying the southernmost Lower and northern Middle Magdalena Valleys. The formation consists of volcanic and pyroclastic lavas that range from andesites to rhyolites. Vitric, lithic and crystal tuffs and andesitic dikes and hypabyssal bodies are also present in the formation.

Noreán Formation Stratigraphic range: Sinemurian-Toarcian 194.6–174.8 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Outcrop of the Effusive Rhyolitic Unit (Jner) south of Pailitas, Cesar[1]
Type	Geological formation
Sub-units	See text
Underlies	Tablazo & La Luna Formations
Overlies	Bocas, Morrocoyal & Sudán Formations Norosí Batholith, San Lucas & Bucaramanga Gneiss
Thickness	2,062 m (6,765 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Andesitic-rhyolitic lavas & pyroclastics
Other	Ignimbrites, thin sandstones
Location
Coordinates	8°00′00″N 74°00′00″W
Region	Bolívar, Cesar & Santander
Country	Colombia
Extent	Serranía de San Lucas & Eastern Ranges, Andes VIM & VMM (subsurface)
Type section
Named for	Caserío Noreán
Named by	Clavijo
Location	Aguachica
Year defined	1995
Coordinates	8°22′54″N 73°36′38″W
Region	Cesar
Country	Colombia
Paleogeography of Northern South America 200 Ma, by Ron Blakey

The more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) thick formation was deposited in a continental arc magmatic setting in an Early Jurassic graben that presently forms the basement of the Middle Magdalena Valley (VMM). A positive anomaly of Pb suggests a subduction-related genesis dominated by explosive volcanism.

Etymology

The Noreán Formation was first defined as the "Unidad Volcanoclástica de Noreán" ("Volcanoclastic Unit of Noreán") in 1995 and in the same year elevated to a formal formation by Clavijo in 1995 as part of the geologic mapping for Plancha 65 Tamalameque and named after the caserío Noreán, 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of Aguachica, Cesar.[5] The type locality of the Noreán Formation is along the road between Buturama and Bombeadero in Aguachica.[6]

Description

The Noreán Formation is found in the northern part of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, stretching from the Cesar Department in the north, towards the Serranía de San Lucas in Bolívar to the Santander Massif in Santander in the south. The formation forms the economic basement in the southern Lower Magdalena Valley (VIM) and the northern Middle Magdalena Valley (VMM). The formation is interpreted as characteristic of an important explosive volcanic phase, the materials of which were deposited in a graben setting of the Middle Magdalena Valley. The Early Jurassic basin was covered by a shallow sea and in part drained by rivers and lakes. The basin at time of deposition was bordered by a volcanic arc, characterized by basaltic to calc-alkaline magmas.[7] The formation also comprises less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) thin very fine to fine sandstone beds constituting quartz (90 to 60 %), feldspars (10 to 40 %) and lithic fragments (1-2 %).[8]

The volcanic and pyroclastic rocks of the Noreán Formation are composed of lavas that range from andesitic to rhyolitic, together with vitric, lithic and crystal tuffs. Mainly andesitic dikes and hypabyssal bodies are also present. Geochemically, the volcanic and pyroclastic rocks exhibit chemical similarities, belong to the calc-alkaline series and have negative anomalies of Nb, P and Ti and a positive anomaly of Pb, suggesting a subduction-related genesis.[9]

U-Pb zircon geochronology resulted in ages of 192.4 ± 2.2 Ma in a basaltic andesite, 184.9 ± 2.0 Ma in an andesitic lava and 175.9 ± 1.1 Ma in a rhyolitic lava, indicating the occurrence of volcanic events in this section of the Noreán Formation from the Lower to the earliest Middle Jurassic. Zircon inheritance suggests that the volcanic arc was emplaced in a Meso- to Neoproterozoic basement. The Noreán Formation represents continental arc magmatism,[9] which occurred during a phase of extensional tectonics along the continental margin of northwestern South America from approximately 195 to 168 Ma.[10]

Stratigraphy

To the northwest of the Santander Massif, the formation overlies the Bocas Formation and is unconformably overlain by the Tablazo Formation.[6] In some locations in this area, the formation is found in faulted contact with the Bucaramanga Gneiss, La Virgen Formation and the Tablazo and La Luna Formations. In the Serranía de San Lucas, the Noreán Formation conformably overlies the Morrocoyal Formation and in this area is overlain by the Tablazo Formation and the Arenal Conglomeratic Unit. Across the San Lucas mountains, the formation is in faulted and discordant contact with the Norosí Batholith, the San Lucas Gneiss and the Sudán Formation.[7]

The formation is offset by the megaregional Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault.[3][1]

Subdivision

On the western flanks of the Eastern Cordillera, the formation is subdivided into six units and in the Serranía de San Lucas into four (1, 3, 5 and 6 of the six named below), from young to old:

1. Hypobyssal Andesitic Unit (Jnha) - 12 metres (39 ft)[11]
2. Effusive Rhyolitic Unit (Jner) - 150 metres (490 ft)[12]
3. Dacitic Effusive Unit (Jned) - 350 metres (1,150 ft)[13]
4. Pyroclastic and Effusive Dacitic Unit (Jnpd) - 450 metres (1,480 ft)[14]
5. Effusive Spherulitic Unit (Jnee) - 300 metres (980 ft)[15]
6. Pyroclastic-epiclastic Unit (Jnpe) - 800 metres (2,600 ft)[16]

Age

Geologic map of the northern VMM and Santander Massif with the Noreán Formation in light purple. U-Pb dating sites with associated ages are indicated.

The age of the Noreán Formation has been established using potassium-argon (K-Ar), rubidium-strontium (Rb-Sr), and uranium-lead dating (U-Pb). The first method gave an age range of 194 ± 6 Ma, the Rb-Sr dating method provided a range of 161 ± 27 Ma and U-Pb dating of zircons resulted in ages of 201.6 ± 3.6 and 196.1 ± 4.4.[7] Refined dating of the formation performed in 2019 by Correa Martínez et al. concluded an age range between 192.4 ± 2.2 and 175.9 ± 1.1 Ma, spanning most of the Early Jurassic, from Sinemurian to Toarcian.[17] The Noreán Formation was intruded by the San Lucas Granitoid in the Middle Jurassic, dated at 166.9 ± 6 Ma.[18] A 2020 thermochronological study concluded that the Jurassic volcanic rocks covering the Santander Massif were exhumed during the latest Cretaceous to early Paleocene.[19]

Outcrops

The northernmost outcrop of the Noreán Formation is found in Chimichagua, Cesar.[2] In Cesar, outcrops occur south of the village of Saloa and around the town of Pailitas,[3] east of Tamalameque and Pelaya and west of La Gloria,[1] in the western part of Morales, Bolívar, north and east of Aguachica where its type locality is situated,[20] in the Serranía de San Lucas, where the urban center of Santa Rosa del Sur rests on top of the formation,[21] in the west of San Pablo, Bolívar,[22] and in the western part of Cantagallo, Bolívar.[23]

Regional correlations

In the Santander Massif, the Noreán Formation has been correlated to the Jordán Formation, while in the Serranía de San Lucas the formation correlates with and is partly overlying the Morrocoyal Formation. In the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of northern Colombia, the Noreán Formation is considered equivalent with the Guatapurí Formation, the Corual and Los Indios Formations and the ignimbrite complexes of Caja de Ahorros, La Paila and La Piña. In the Serranía del Perijá to the east of the extent of the formation, the Noreán Formation correlates with La Quinta Formation. In the La Guajira peninsula, the formation is time-equivalent with the Rancho Grande Formation while to the south of its area in the Upper Magdalena Valley the Noreán Formation is correlated with the Saldaña Formation.[7] The Lower Jurassic is missing in the Llanos Basin to the southeast of the extent of the Eastern Cordillera.[24]

Stratigraphy of the Llanos Basin and surrounding provinces

Ma	Age	Paleomap	Regional events	Catatumbo	Cordillera	proximal Llanos	distal Llanos	Putumayo	VSM	Environments	Maximum thickness	Petroleum geology	Notes
0.01	Holocene		Holocene volcanism Seismic activity	alluvium								Overburden
1	Pleistocene		Pleistocene volcanism Andean orogeny 3 Glaciations	Guayabo	Soatá Sabana	Necesidad	Guayabo	Gigante Neiva		Alluvial to fluvial (Guayabo)	550 m (1,800 ft) (Guayabo)		[25][26][27][28]
2.6	Pliocene		Pliocene volcanism Andean orogeny 3 GABI		Subachoque
5.3	Messinian		Andean orogeny 3 Foreland		Marichuela			Caimán	Honda				[27][29]
13.5	Langhian		Regional flooding	León	hiatus	Caja	León			Lacustrine (León)	400 m (1,300 ft) (León)	Seal	[28][30]
16.2	Burdigalian		Miocene inundations Andean orogeny 2	C1		Carbonera C1		Ospina		Proximal fluvio-deltaic (C1)	850 m (2,790 ft) (Carbonera)	Reservoir	[29][28]
17.3				C2		Carbonera C2				Distal lacustrine-deltaic (C2)		Seal
19				C3		Carbonera C3				Proximal fluvio-deltaic (C3)		Reservoir
21	Early Miocene		Pebas wetlands	C4		Carbonera C4			Barzalosa	Distal fluvio-deltaic (C4)		Seal
23	Late Oligocene		Andean orogeny 1 Foredeep	C5		Carbonera C5		Orito		Proximal fluvio-deltaic (C5)		Reservoir	[26][29]
25				C6		Carbonera C6				Distal fluvio-lacustrine (C6)		Seal
28	Early Oligocene			C7		C7		Pepino	Gualanday	Proximal deltaic-marine (C7)		Reservoir	[26][29][31]
32	Oligo-Eocene			C8	Usme	C8	onlap			Marine-deltaic (C8)		Seal Source	[31]
35	Late Eocene			Mirador		Mirador				Coastal (Mirador)	240 m (790 ft) (Mirador)	Reservoir	[28][32]
40	Middle Eocene				Regadera				hiatus
45
50	Early Eocene			Socha		Los Cuervos				Deltaic (Los Cuervos)	260 m (850 ft) (Los Cuervos)	Seal Source	[28][32]
55	Late Paleocene		PETM 2000 ppm CO2	Los Cuervos	Bogotá				Gualanday
60	Early Paleocene		SALMA	Barco	Guaduas	Barco		Rumiyaco		Fluvial (Barco)	225 m (738 ft) (Barco)	Reservoir	[25][26][29][28][33]
65	Maastrichtian		KT extinction	Catatumbo	Guadalupe				Monserrate	Deltaic-fluvial (Guadalupe)	750 m (2,460 ft) (Guadalupe)	Reservoir	[25][28]
72	Campanian		End of rifting	Colón-Mito Juan									[28][34]
83	Santonian							Villeta/Güagüaquí
86	Coniacian
89	Turonian		Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event	La Luna	Chipaque	Gachetá	hiatus			Restricted marine (all)	500 m (1,600 ft) (Gachetá)	Source	[25][28][35]
93	Cenomanian		Rift 2
100	Albian				Une	Une		Caballos		Deltaic (Une)	500 m (1,600 ft) (Une)	Reservoir	[29][35]
113	Aptian			Capacho	Fómeque			Motema	Yaví	Open marine (Fómeque)	800 m (2,600 ft) (Fómeque)	Source (Fóm)	[26][28][36]
125	Barremian		High biodiversity	Aguardiente	Paja					Shallow to open marine (Paja)	940 m (3,080 ft) (Paja)	Reservoir	[25]
129	Hauterivian		Rift 1	Tibú- Mercedes	Las Juntas	hiatus				Deltaic (Las Juntas)	910 m (2,990 ft) (Las Juntas)	Reservoir (LJun)	[25]
133	Valanginian			Río Negro	Cáqueza Macanal Rosablanca					Restricted marine (Macanal)	2,935 m (9,629 ft) (Macanal)	Source (Mac)	[26][37]
140	Berriasian			Girón
145	Tithonian		Break-up of Pangea	Jordán	Arcabuco	Buenavista Batá		Saldaña		Alluvial, fluvial (Buenavista)	110 m (360 ft) (Buenavista)	"Jurassic"	[29][38]
150	Early-Mid Jurassic		Passive margin 2	La Quinta	Montebel Noreán	hiatus				Coastal tuff (La Quinta)	100 m (330 ft) (La Quinta)		[39]
201	Late Triassic			Mucuchachi				Payandé					[29]
235	Early Triassic		Pangea		hiatus							"Paleozoic"
250	Permian
300	Late Carboniferous		Famatinian orogeny						Cerro Neiva ()				[40]
340	Early Carboniferous		Fossil fish Romer's gap		Cuche (355-385)	Farallones ()				Deltaic, estuarine (Cuche)	900 m (3,000 ft) (Cuche)
360	Late Devonian		Passive margin 1	Río Cachirí (360-419)					Ambicá ()	Alluvial-fluvial-reef (Farallones)	2,400 m (7,900 ft) (Farallones)		[37][41][42][43][44]
390	Early Devonian		High biodiversity	Floresta (387-400) El Tíbet						Shallow marine (Floresta)	600 m (2,000 ft) (Floresta)
410	Late Silurian		Silurian mystery
425	Early Silurian			hiatus
440	Late Ordovician		Rich fauna in Bolivia	San Pedro (450-490)		Duda ()
470	Early Ordovician		First fossils		Busbanzá (>470±22) Chuscales Otengá	Guape ()		Río Nevado ()	Hígado () Agua Blanca Venado (470-475)				[45][46][47]
488	Late Cambrian		Regional intrusions	Chicamocha (490-515)	Quetame ()	Ariarí ()		SJ del Guaviare (490-590)	San Isidro ()				[48][49]
515	Early Cambrian		Cambrian explosion										[47][50]
542	Ediacaran		Break-up of Rodinia		pre-Quetame		post-Parguaza		El Barro ()	Yellow: allochthonous basement (Chibcha Terrane) Green: autochthonous basement (Río Negro-Juruena Province)		Basement	[51][52]
600	Neoproterozoic		Cariri Velhos orogeny	Bucaramanga (600-1400)				pre-Guaviare					[48]
800			Snowball Earth										[53]
1000	Mesoproterozoic		Sunsás orogeny			Ariarí (1000)			La Urraca (1030-1100)				[54][55][56][57]
1300			Rondônia-Juruá orogeny			pre-Ariarí	Parguaza (1300-1400)		Garzón (1180-1550)				[58]
1400				pre-Bucaramanga									[59]
1600	Paleoproterozoic						Maimachi (1500-1700)		pre-Garzón				[60]
1800			Tapajós orogeny				Mitú (1800)						[58][60]
1950			Transamazonic orogeny				pre-Mitú						[58]
2200			Columbia
2530	Archean		Carajas-Imataca orogeny										[58]
3100			Kenorland
Sources

Legend

• group
• important formation
• fossiliferous formation
• minor formation
• (age in Ma)
• proximal Llanos (Medina)[note 1]
• distal Llanos (Saltarin 1A well)[note 2]

See also

• Geology of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense
• Geology of the Eastern Hills
• Cesar-Ranchería Basin, sedimentary basin to the northeast of the Noreán extent
• Central Atlantic magmatic province, megaregional igneous province of the Early Jurassic
• Nacientes del Biobío Formation, contemporaneous volcanic formation of central Chile and western Argentina
• Pan de Azúcar Formation, contemporaneous volcanic formation of northern Chile

Notes

1. based on Duarte et al. (2019)[61], García González et al. (2009),[62] and geological report of Villavicencio[63]
2. based on Duarte et al. (2019)[61] and the hydrocarbon potential evaluation performed by the UIS and ANH in 2009[64]

References

1. Plancha 65, 1994
2. Plancha 47, 2001
3. Plancha 55, 2006
4. González Iregui et al., 2015, p.56
5. Royero, 1996, p.10
6. Correa Martínez et al., 2019, p.31
7. Correa Martínez et al., 2019, p.32
8. González Iregui et al., 2015, p.58
9. Correa Martínez et al., 2019, p.29
10. Rodríguez García et al., 2020, p.43
11. Royero, 1996, p.16
12. Royero, 1996, pp.15-16
13. Royero, 1996, p.15
14. Royero, 1996, pp.13-15
15. Royero, 1996, p.12
16. Royero, 1996, pp.11-12
17. Correa Martínez et al., 2019, p.43
18. Clavijo et al., 2008, p.52
19. Amaya Ferreira et al., 2020, p.11
20. Plancha 75, 1992
21. Plancha 85, 2006
22. Plancha 96, 2006
23. Plancha 108, 2012
24. Barrero et al., 2007, p.70
25. García González et al., 2009, p.27
26. García González et al., 2009, p.50
27. García González et al., 2009, p.85
28. Barrero et al., 2007, p.60
29. Barrero et al., 2007, p.58
30. Plancha 111, 2001, p.29
31. Plancha 177, 2015, p.39
32. Plancha 111, 2001, p.26
33. Plancha 111, 2001, p.24
34. Plancha 111, 2001, p.23
35. Pulido & Gómez, 2001, p.32
36. Pulido & Gómez, 2001, p.30
37. Pulido & Gómez, 2001, pp.21-26
38. Pulido & Gómez, 2001, p.28
39. Correa Martínez et al., 2019, p.49
40. Plancha 303, 2002, p.27
41. Terraza et al., 2008, p.22
42. Plancha 229, 2015, pp.46-55
43. Plancha 303, 2002, p.26
44. Moreno Sánchez et al., 2009, p.53
45. Mantilla Figueroa et al., 2015, p.43
46. Manosalva Sánchez et al., 2017, p.84
47. Plancha 303, 2002, p.24
48. Mantilla Figueroa et al., 2015, p.42
49. Arango Mejía et al., 2012, p.25
50. Plancha 350, 2011, p.49
51. Pulido & Gómez, 2001, pp.17-21
52. Plancha 111, 2001, p.13
53. Plancha 303, 2002, p.23
54. Plancha 348, 2015, p.38
55. Planchas 367-414, 2003, p.35
56. Toro Toro et al., 2014, p.22
57. Plancha 303, 2002, p.21
58. Bonilla et al., 2016, p.19
59. Gómez Tapias et al., 2015, p.209
60. Bonilla et al., 2016, p.22
61. Duarte et al., 2019
62. García González et al., 2009
63. Pulido & Gómez, 2001
64. García González et al., 2009, p.60

Bibliography

• Amaya Ferreira, Sergio; Carlos Augusto Zuluaga, and Matthias Bernet. 2020. Different Levels of Exhumation across the Bucaramanga Fault in the Cepitá Area of the Southwestern Santander Massif, Colombia: Implications for the Tectonic Evolution of the Northern Andes in Northwestern South America. Servicio Geológico Colombiano Publicaciones Especiales 37. 1–17. Accessed 2020-07-13.
• Rodríguez García, Gabriel; Ana María Correa Martínez; Gilberto Zapata García; María Isabel Arango Mejía; Gloria Obando Erazo; Juan Pablo Zapata Villada, and José Gilberto Bermúdez. 2020. Diverse Jurassic Magmatic Arcs of the Colombian Andes: Constraints from Petrography, Geochronology, and Geochemistry. Servicio Geológico Colombiano Publicaciones Especiales 36. 1–54. Accessed 2020-07-13.
• Correa Martínez, Ana María; Gabriel Rodríguez; María Isabel Arango, and Gilberto Zapata García. 2019. Petrografía, geoquímica y geocronología U-Pb de las rocas volcánicas y piroclásticas de la Formación Noreán al NW del Macizo de Santander, Colombia. Boletín de Geología 41. 29–54. Accessed 2019-10-31. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
• González Iregui, Humberto; Rosalba Salinas Echeverri; Jorge Ignacio Cárdenas; Carlos Muñoz Taborda; Germán Ayala Montoya, and Wilson Vélez Giraldo. 2015. Memoria de la Plancha 56 - San Roque - 1:100,000, 1–147. Servicio Geológico Colombiano.
• Clavijo, Jairo; Luís Mantilla; Jorge Pinto; Luís Bernal, and Adrián Pérez. 2008. Evolución geológica de la Serranía de San Lucas, norte del Valle Medio del Magdalena y noroeste de la Cordillera Oriental. Boletín de Geología 30. 45–62. Accessed 2020-07-13.
• Barrero, Dario; Andrés Pardo; Carlos A. Vargas, and Juan F. Martínez. 2007. Colombian Sedimentary Basins: Nomenclature, Boundaries and Petroleum Geology, a New Proposal, 1–92. ANH.
• Royero, José María. 1996. Memoria de la Plancha 65 - Tamalameque - 1:100,000, 1–78. INGEOMINAS.

Maps

• Hernández, Marina; Jairo Clavijo, and Javier González. 2001. Plancha 47 - Chiriguaná - 1:100,000, 1. INGEOMINAS. Accessed 2017-06-06.
• Bernal Vargas, Luis Enrique, and Luis Carlos Mantilla Figueroa. 2006. Plancha 55 - El Banco - 1:100,000, 1. INGEOMINAS. Accessed 2017-06-06.
• Royero, José María; Jairo Clavijo; Hernando Mendoza; Gonzalo Barbosa; G. Vargas; R.E. Bernal, and P. Ferreira. 1994. Plancha 65 - Tamalameque - 1:100,000, 1. INGEOMINAS. Accessed 2017-06-06.
• Clavijo, Jairo; Gonzalo Barbosa; J.A. Camacho; L.E. Bernal; José María Royero, and E. Castro. 1992. Plancha 75 - Aguachica - 1:100,000, 1. INGEOMINAS. Accessed 2017-06-06.
• Bernal Vargas, Luis Enrique, and Luis Carlos Mantilla Figueroa. 2006. Plancha 85 - Simití - 1:100,000, 1. INGEOMINAS. Accessed 2017-06-06.
• Bernal Vargas, Luis Enrique, and Luis Carlos Mantilla Figueroa. 2006. Plancha 96 - Bocas del Rosario - 1:100,000, 1. INGEOMINAS. Accessed 2017-06-06.
• UPTC, _. 2012. Plancha 108 - Puerto Wilches - 1:100,000, 1. Servicio Geológico Colombiano. Accessed 2018-06-01.