Relación exhumación-deformación cenozoica de la Serranía del Interior Occidental, Venezuela, mediante modelado termocinemático 2D

Cenozoic exhumation-deformation relationship of the Serranía del Interior Occidental, Venezuela, using 2D thermokinematic modeling

Ana Jazmín Rodríguez-Lara^1,*, Mauricio A. Bermúdez¹, Jaime Pérez de Armas²

¹ Escuela de Ingeniería Geológica, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Calle 4 Sur No. 15-134, 15210, Sogamoso-Boyacá, Colombia.

² Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, MS-126, Universidad Rice, 77005, Houston, Texas, USA.

* Autor para correspondencia: (A. J. Rodríguez-Lara) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How to cite this article:

Rodríguez-Lara, A. J., Bermúdez, M. A.,Pérez de Armas, J., 2021, Relación exhumación-deformación cenozoica de la Serranía del Interior Occidental, Venezuela, mediante modelado termocinemático 2D: Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, 73 (2), A100221. http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2021v73n2a100221

ABSTRACT

In the center-north of Venezuela is the Cordillera de la Costa, formed by the Serranía del Interior and the Serranía del Litoral in Venezuela, separated by the La Victoria Fault System. This research combines 2D structural restoration and thermokinematic modeling, apatite fission-track, seismological data and heat flow of the area, to reconstruct the deformation history and associate fault activity to the present-day seismicity. A map of Quaternary faults associated with thermal behavior and seismic activity was elaborated. The thermokinematic modeling allowing us predicting surface ages and time-temperature histories which were compared with data observed in the study zone. Our results suggest that the rocks were buried until the Eocene, when the Caribbean plate collides with the north central part of South America. We discriminated 4 tectonic cooling pulses: 48 to 40 Ma, 40 to 23 Ma, 23 to 5 and 5 to 0 Ma. The first one is related to the convergence between the Caribbean and South American plates, causing the emplacement of the Lara Nappes, the second one is related to the cooling of rocks caused during rocks transport to the surface product of the subduction of the Caribbean plate under the deformed Caribbean belt, the third one corresponds to the continuation of the subduction of the Caribbean plate under the South American plate, due to the reactivation of transpressive type faults and the last one relates to the advance of the Caribbean plate towards the east and the reactivation of important strike-slip faults. Despite the fact that there is an important seismic activity in the Caribbean mountains, in this sector of the Serranía del Interior there is not a significant distribution of earthquakes.

Keywords: thermochronology, seismicity, thermokinematic modeling, tectonics, compression, heat flow.