Chitagá-Pamplona Fault

Chitagá-Pamplona Fault
Falla de Chitagá-Pamplona
Map showing the location of Chitagá-Pamplona Fault
Map showing the location of Chitagá-Pamplona Fault
Map showing the location of Chitagá-Pamplona Fault
Map showing the location of Chitagá-Pamplona Fault
EtymologyChitagá, Pamplona
Coordinates07°32′34.2″N 72°36′30.4″W / 7.542833°N 72.608444°W / 7.542833; -72.608444
Country Colombia
RegionAndean
StateNorte de Santander, Boyacá
CitiesPamplona, Chitagá
Characteristics
RangeEastern Ranges, Andes
Catatumbo Basin
Part ofAndean oblique faults
Length192.5 km (119.6 mi)
Strike355.2 ± 30
DipVariable
Dip angleVariable
Displacement0.2–1 mm (0.0079–0.0394 in)/yr
Tectonics
PlateNorth Andean
StatusInactive
TypeOblique strike-slip fault
MovementReverse sinistral
Rock unitsFloresta & Río Negro Formations
AgePleistocene
OrogenyAndean

The Chitagá-Pamplona Fault (Spanish: Falla de Chitagá-Pamplona) is an inactive sinistral oblique thrust fault in the departments of Norte de Santander and Boyacá in northeastern Colombia. The fault has a total length of 192.5 kilometres (119.6 mi) and runs along an average north to south strike of 355.2 ± 30, but varies in orientation from northwest–southeast in the south to northeast–southwest in the north. The fault cross-cuts the northern part of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes and the Catatumbo Basin.

Etymology

The fault was named after Chitagá and Pamplona, Norte de Santander.[1]

Description

The Chitagá-Pamplona Fault parallels the Morronegro-Las Mercedes Fault System and places Paleozoic rocks on the west against Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks on the east. The structural behavior of the fault is very similar to faults of the Morronegro-Las Mercedes Fault System. Both faults are believed to be an extension of the Boconó Fault and associated faults of the Venezuelan Andes.[1] The fault starts in northernmost Boyacá in the municipality Chiscas, just north of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, where it places the Devonian Floresta Formation in the hanging wall against the Cretaceous Río Negro Formation in the footwall.[2]

Activity

A rate between 0.2 and 1 millimetre (0.0079 and 0.0394 in) per year is estimated for the fault, considered inactive. The fault was probably active in the Pleistocene, at an estimated range of between 1.6 Ma and 750 ka.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Paris et al., 2000a, p.38
  2. ^ Plancha 122, 1982
  3. ^ Paris et al., 2000a, p.39

Bibliography

  • Paris, Gabriel; Machette, Michael N.; Dart, Richard L.; Haller, Kathleen M. (2000a), Map and Database of Quaternary Faults and Folds in Colombia and its Offshore Regions (PDF), USGS, pp. 1–66, retrieved 2017-09-18

Maps