As part of an ongoing investigation and a regional-scale geological update, we compiled and updated the regional boundaries of subsurface sedimentary basins in northern South America and the southern Caribbean, and reviewed their tectonic affinities. The research is based on geophysical and geological publications from multiple academic and industrial stakeholders over decades of scientific advancement.
As a preliminary result, we present a regional map based on a georeferenced database (Geographic Information Systems, GIS) that integrates 44 basins and 17 sub-basins from Colombia to Guyana. For these, we propose a hierarchical scheme that considers, among other factors: 1. Crustal substrate (oceanic, continental, transitional crust, and accreted terrane, Figura 1) 2. Dynamic configuration (convergence, divergence, transcurrence, intraplate, and hybrid) 3. Structural style (mechanism creating accommodation space, e.g., extension, compression, transcurrence, flexure/loading, thermal subsidence, transtension, and transpression). The proposed scheme aims to adapt genetic schemes from previous authors (e.g., Allen and Allen 2013; Kingston et al. 1983), including the multiphase evolutionary pattern observed in numerous and prolific basins in the region. The age of the basins ranges from Late Proterozoic to Paleozoic to Mesozoic and Tertiary.
All basins located in the continental lithosphere began as continental rifts between the Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic. A few of them remained as aulacogens, some became Mesozoic-Tertiary passive margins, and most evolved into sub-Andean Wilson cycles with one or more superimposed foreland cycles. Associated with the eastward relative movement of the Caribbean plate and the associated "B" subduction, accretionary prisms, forearc basins, and back-arc basins were formed.
Throughout the accreted terranes on the Pacific and Caribbean continental margins, pull-apart basins and /or orogenic collapse rifts formed by transtension in orogens floating on subducting "A" type lithosphere over Paleozoic terranes and/or continental crust. In the extensive Caribbean magmatic province, oceanic basins formed starting in the Cretaceous. The richness of the petroleum systems varies, with giant and supergiant oil and gas accumulations primarily in Tertiary and Cretaceous reservoirs, and a few in Jurassic or Paleozoic strata. The prospectivity is also attractive for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in extensive regional Mesozoic and Tertiary aquifers, or for CCS projects leveraged by enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in medium- and light-oil fields.
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Presented XVIII CONGRESO VENEZOLANO DE GEOFÍSICA, ENERGIA,TIERRA Y TECNOLOGIA: CONSTRUYENDOEL FUTURO DE VENEZUELA,
Caracas,12 al 15 de Noviembre de 2025,
