REGIONAL SUBSURFACE MAPPING AND 3D FLEXURAL MODELING OF THE OBLIQUELY-CONVERGING PUTUMAYO FORELAND BASIN, SOUTHERN COLOMBIA

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-115
Author(s):  
Luis Pachón-Parra ◽  
Paul Mann ◽  
Nestor Cardozo
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
South American ◽  
Foreland Basins ◽  
Mountain Front ◽  
Early Paleocene ◽  
Exploratory Wells ◽  
Basement High ◽  
Mountain Chain ◽  
Flexural Modeling

The Putumayo foreland basin (PFB) is an underexplored, hydrocarbon-bearing basin located in southernmost Colombia. The PFB forms a 250-km long segment of the 7000-km-long corridor of Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic foreland basins produced by eastward thrusting of the Andean mountain chain over Precambrian rocks of the South American craton. We use ∼4000 km of 2D seismic data tied to 28 exploratory wells to describe the basin-wide structure and stratigraphy of an underexplored hydrocarbon basin. Based on seismic interpretation and comparison with published works from the southward continuation of the PFB into Peru and Ecuador, three main across-strike, structural zones include: 1) the 20-km-wide, Western structural zone closest to the Andean mountain front characterized by inversion of older, Jurassic half-grabens during the late Miocene; 2) the 45-km-wide, Central structural zone characterized by moderately-inverted Jurassic half-grabens; and 3) the 120-km-wide, Eastern structural zone characterized by the 40-km-wide, N-S trending Caquetá arch. The five mainly clastic tectonosequences of the PFB include: 1) Lower Cretaceous pre-foreland basin deposits; 2) Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene foreland basin deposits; 3) Eocene foreland basin deposits related to the early uplift of the Eastern Cordillera; 4) Oligocene-Miocene underfilled, foreland basin deposits; and 5) Plio-Pleistocene overfilled, foreland basin deposits. We used 3D flexural modeling to identify the elastic thickness (Te) of the lithosphere below the PFB, in order to model the location of the sedimentary-related and tectonically-related forebulges of Cretaceous to Oligocene age. Flexural analysis shows two pulses of rapid, foreland-related subsidence first during the Late Cretaceous-early Paleocene and later during the Oligocene-Miocene. Despite the present-day oblique thrusting of the mountain front, flexure of the PFB basement has produced a tectonic forebulge now located in the Eastern structural zone and controls a basement high that forms the eastern, updip limit for most hydrocarbons found in the PFB.

Magnetostratigraphic study of a Late Cretaceous−Paleogene succession in the eastern Xining basin, NE Tibet: Constraint on the timing of major tectonic events in response to the India-Eurasia collision

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi-Cheng He ◽  
Yue-Qiao Zhang ◽  
Shao-Kai Li ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
Jian-Qing Ji
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Foreland Basins ◽  
Southern Tibet ◽  
Tectonic Transition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Xining Basin

Cretaceous-Cenozoic basins developed in the NE Tibetan Plateau contain key archives to unravel the growth history of the plateau in response to the India-Eurasia collision. Here we present magnetostratigraphic results of a Late Cretaceous to Paleogene succession of the Zhongba section outcropping at the southern margin of the eastern Xining basin. This succession consists of three lithological units punctuated by two stratigraphic unconformities, which best recorded the deformation history of this foreland basin. Detailed magnetostratigraphic investigation show that the lower terrestrial sedimentary rock unit, the Minhe Group, was deposited in latest Cretaceous in the time span of ca. 74.5−69.2 Ma; the middle unit was deposited in Paleogene in the time span of ca. 49.3−22 Ma; and the upper conglomeratic unit, not dated, possibly was deposited in early Miocene. Accordingly, the Cretaceous−Paleogene unconformity, widely observed in the foreland basins of NE Tibet, represents a sedimentary hiatus duration of ∼19.9 m.y., from ca. 69.2 Ma to ca. 49.3 Ma, which possibly recorded the far-field response to the tectonic transition from Neo-Tethys oceanic plate subduction to the India-Eurasia collision in southern Tibet. Changes in provenance, sedimentary accumulation rate, and mean susceptibility value at ca. 33−30 Ma, and the total prolate anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) ellipsoids and provenance shifting since ca. 23−19 Ma, point to the pulsed growth of West Qinling, and rapid uplift of Laji Shan, respectively, indicating an enhanced effect of the India-Eurasia collision in Oligocene and early Miocene. AMS results show a clockwise rotation of the shortening direction from NEN-SWS in latest Cretaceous to NE-SW in Paleogene.

Post-orogenic sediment drape and flux of mountain range-foreland basin systems: An example from the Northern Pyrenees

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernard ◽  
Hugh Sinclair ◽  
Mark Naylor ◽  
Elliot Weir ◽  
Frédéric Christophoul ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Sediment Flux ◽  
Crustal Thickening ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Foreland Basins ◽  
Isostatic Rebound ◽  
Basin Subsidence ◽  
Mountain Front

<p>The transition from syn- to post-orogenesis is generally identified in foreland basins by a switch from active subsidence and deposition to isostatic rebound and erosion. However, the nature of the interplay between isostatic rebound and sediment supply, and their impact on the topographic evolution of a range and foreland basin during this transition has not been fully explored.</p><p>Here, we use a box model to explore the syn- to post-orogenic evolution of foreland basin/thrust wedge systems. Using a set of parameter values that approximate the northern Pyrenees and the neighbouring Aquitaine foreland basin, we evaluate the controls on: 1) the sediment drape over the frontal parts of the retro-wedge and 2) the sediment accumulation into surrounding continental margins following cessation of crustal thickening. Conglomerate and sandstone sediments preserved at approximately 600 m elevation, which is ~300 m above the present mountain front in the northern Pyrenees record an age of ca. 12 Ma, approximately 8 Myrs younger than the last evidence of crustal thickening in the wedge. These sediments formed a regional drape that reached up to approximately 800 m elevation, but are now preserved in low gradient patches, and are associated with more regional surfaces across the northern Pyrenees. Using the model, this post-orogenic sediment drape can be explained by the combination of a sustained, high sediment influx from the range into the basin relative to the efflux out of the basin, combined with cessation of basin subsidence. The model also predicts higher sediment flux out of the system during the post-orogenic phase involving an increase of sediment accumulation as observed in the Bay of Biscay during this interval.</p><p>Post-orogenic sediment drape and increased sediment flux out the mountain range-foreland basin system are proposed as generic processes of these systems.</p>

scholarly journals The push and pull of abandoned channels: How floodplain processes and healing affect avulsion dynamics and alluvial landscape evolution in foreland basins

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison K. Martin ◽  
Douglas A. Edmonds
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Equilibrium ◽  
Landscape Evolution ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Foreland Basins ◽  
Abandoned Channel ◽  
Mountain Front ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Abandoned Channels

Abstract. River avulsions are an important mechanism by which sediment is routed and emplaced in foreland basins. However, because avulsions occur infrequently, we lack observational data that might inform where, when, and why avulsions occur and these questions are instead often investigated by rule-based numerical models. These models have historically simplified or neglected the effects of abandoned channels on avulsion dynamics, even though fluvial megafans in foreland basins are characteristically covered in abandoned channels. Here, we investigate the pervasiveness of abandoned channels on modern fluvial megafan surfaces. Then, we present a physically based cellular model that parameterizes interactions between a single avulsing river and abandoned channels in a foreland basin setting. We investigate how abandoned channels affect avulsion set-up, pathfinding, and landscape evolution. We demonstrate and discuss how the processes of abandoned channel inheritance and transient knickpoint propagation post-avulsion serve to shortcut the time necessary to set-up successive avulsions. Then, we address the idea that abandoned channels can both repel and attract future pathfinding flows under different conditions. By measuring the distance between the mountain-front and each avulsion over long (106 to 107 years) timescales, we show that increasing abandoned channel repulsion serves to push avulsions farther from the mountain-front, while increasing attraction pulls avulsions proximally. Abandoned channels do not persist forever, and we test possible channel healing scenarios (deposition-only, erosion-only, and far-field directed) and show that only the final scenario achieves dynamic equilibrium without completely filling accommodation space. We also observe megafan growth occurring via ~O:105 year lobe switching, but only in our runs that employ deposition-only or erosion-only healing modes. Finally, we highlight opportunities for future field work and remote sensing efforts to inform our understanding of the role that floodplain topography, including abandoned channels, plays on avulsion dynamics.

Late Cretaceous stratigraphy and vertebrate faunas of the Markagunt, Paunsaugunt, and Kaiparowits plateaus, southern Utah

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 229-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Titus ◽  
Jeffrey G. Eaton ◽  
Joseph Sertich
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Alluvial Plain ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrate ◽  
The North ◽  
Single Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Kaiparowits Plateau ◽  
Fossil Preservation ◽  
Fossil Records

The Late Cretaceous succession of southern Utah was deposited in an active foreland basin circa 100 to 70 million years ago. Thick siliciclastic units represent a variety of marine, coastal, and alluvial plain environments, but are dominantly terrestrial, and also highly fossiliferous. Conditions for vertebrate fossil preservation appear to have optimized in alluvial plain settings more distant from the coast, and so in general the locus of good preservation of diverse assemblages shifts eastward through the Late Cretaceous. The Middle and Late Campanian record of the Paunsaugunt and Kaiparowits Plateau regions is especially good, exhibiting common soft tissue preservation, and comparable with that of the contemporaneous Judith River and Belly River Groups to the north. Collectively the Cenomanian through Campanian strata of southern Utah hold one of the most complete single region terrestrial vertebrate fossil records in the world.

scholarly journals Volcanism and Volcanogenic Submarine Sedimentation in the Paleogene Foreland Basins of the Alps: Reassessing the Source-to-Sink Systems with an Actualist View

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Andrea Di Capua ◽  
Federica Barilaro ◽  
Gianluca Groppelli
Keyword(s):  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Foreland Basins ◽  
The North ◽  
Source To Sink ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Alpine Foreland ◽  
Alpine Foreland Basin ◽  
Tectonic Lineament ◽  
First Time

This work critically reviews the Eocene–Oligocene source-to-sink systems accumulating volcanogenic sequences in the basins around the Alps. Through the years, these volcanogenic sequences have been correlated to the plutonic bodies along the Periadriatic Fault System, the main tectonic lineament running from West to East within the axis of the belt. Starting from the large amounts of data present in literature, for the first time we present an integrated 4D model on the evolution of the sediment pathways that once connected the magmatic sources to the basins. The magmatic systems started to develop during the Eocene in the Alps, supplying detritus to the Adriatic Foredeep. The progradation of volcanogenic sequences in the Northern Alpine Foreland Basin is subsequent and probably was favoured by the migration of the magmatic systems to the North and to the West. At around 30 Ma, the Northern Apennine Foredeep also was fed by large volcanogenic inputs, but the palinspastic reconstruction of the Adriatic Foredeep, together with stratigraphic and petrographic data, allows us to safely exclude the Alps as volcanogenic sources. Beyond the regional case, this review underlines the importance of a solid stratigraphic approach in the reconstruction of the source-to-sink system evolution of any basin.

Rediscovery of Choroterpes atramentum in Costa Rica, type species of Tikuna new genus (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae: Atalophlebiinae), and its role in the "Great American Inter-change"

Zootaxa ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 932 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARRY M. SAVAGE ◽  
R. WILLS FLOWERS ◽  
WENDY PORRAS V.
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Central America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Type Species ◽  
New Genus ◽  
South American ◽  
Early Tertiary ◽  
Geological Formation

A new genus, Tikuna, is described based on recent collections of adults and nymphs of Choroterpes atramentum Traver from western Costa Rica. All recent collections are from streams on or near the Nicoya Complex, the oldest geological formation in Lower Central America. Tikuna belongs to a lineage of South American Atalophlebiinae (Leptophlebiidae: Ephemeroptera) whose origin is hypothesized to have been in the late Cretaceous–early Tertiary. Some implications of the distribution of Tikuna for theories on the origin of Costa Rica’s biota are discussed.

scholarly journals Coal petrology analysis and implications in depositional environments from upper Cretaceous to Miocene: a study case in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Guatame ◽  
Marco Rincón
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Estuarine System ◽  
Eastern Cordillera ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
San Fernando ◽  
Coal Facies ◽  
Oil Sector

AbstractThe Piedemonte Llanero Basin is located on the eastern side of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. It has been the subject of numerous geological studies carried out for the oil sector, mainly. This study presents the coal-petrographical features of 15 coal seams of four geological formations from Late Cretaceous to Middle Miocene (Chipaque formation, Palmichal group, Arcillas del Limbo formation, and San Fernando formation). Analysis of 33 samples indicates enrichment in vitrinite, while liptinite and inertinite concentrations vary according to the stratigraphic position. Reflectance indicates that the coal range gradually decreases from highly volatile bituminous C (Chipaque formation) to subbituminous C (San Fernando formation). The microlithotypes with the highest concentrations are clarite and vitrinertoliptite. Maceral composition and coal facies indicate changes in the depositional conditions of the sequence. The precursor peat from Late Cretaceous to Late Paleocene accumulated under limnic conditions followed by telmatic in Late Eocene–Early Miocene. The coal facies indices show wet conditions in forest swamps with variations in the flooding surface, influxes of brackish water and good tissue preservation. The tectonic conditions along the Piedemonte Llanero basin is evident, from post-rift to foreland basin, evidenced by oxic and anoxic periods reflected in the maceral composition and its morphology. The coal environment corresponds to an estuarine system started in the Chipaque formation evolving to the lacustrine conditions in the San Fernando formation.

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