The Llanos Basin () or Eastern Llanos Basin () is a major sedimentary basin of in northeastern Colombia. The foreland basin on Mesozoic rift basin covers the departments of Arauca, Casanare and Meta Department and parts of eastern Boyacá and Cundinamarca, western Guainía, northern Guaviare and southeasternmost Norte de Santander. The northern boundary is formed by the border with Venezuela, where the basin grades into the Barinas-Apure Basin.
Description
The northeastern part of Colombia is characterized by its wavy plains, called
Llanos Orientales, as part of the bigger
Llanos that extend into Venezuela. The landscape is similar to a
savanna and is poor in trees. It is located between the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian
Andes in the west, the Vaupés Arch in the south and the
Guiana Shield in the east.
[Barrero et al., 2007, p.69]
Geologically, the Llanos Basin underlies this typical landscape of the Llanos. An area where transport occurs mostly by small boats along the many rivers and the "buses of the Llanos", the Douglas DC-3 planes. The basin covers an area of and contains a stratigraphic column from the Paleozoic to recent.[ANH, 2010] Several of the formations in the basins are (Gachetá, Los Cuervos, Carbonera C8), reservoir rocks (Mirador, Barco Formation, Guadalupe Group and the uneven numbered members of Carbonera). Seal rock are formed by the shaly intervals (even numbered) of the Carbonera Formation, Los Cuervos, and León.[García González et al., 2009, p.58]
The basin is the main petroleum producing basin of Colombia, with four of the nations biggest oil fields located in the Llanos Basin. Major fields are Rubiales, Colombia's biggest and most recent giant discovery sealed by a complex of hydrodynamics, and Caño Limón, at the border with Venezuela.
Major concerns in the basin for the production of petroleum are biodegradation, hydrocarbon migration, fault seal capacity and water flow.
Hydrography
The Llanos Basin is crossed by numerous rivers, all belonging to the
Orinoco. From north to south:
Flora and fauna
Fauna
Among other species, Lynch's swamp frog (
Pseudopaludicola llanera) is endemic to the Llanos, with the species
epithet referring to the plains.
[ Pseudopaludicola llanera at IUCN.org] Also the
whip scorpion Mastigoproctus colombianus is reported from the Llanos Basin.
[ Mastigoproctus colombianus at GBIF.org]
Geodynamic situation
The country of Colombia spreads out over six tectonic plates, clockwise from north:
-
Caribbean Plate
-
North Andes Plate
-
South American Plate
-
Malpelo Plate
-
Coiba Plate
-
Panama Plate
The Llanos Basin is situated entirely on the South American Plate, bordering the North Andean Block or North Andean microplate in the west. The basin is one of three Colombian basins on the South American Plate, to the south the Caguán-Putumayo Basin and to the southeast the Vaupés-Amazonas Basin. The northern boundary of the Llanos Basin is formed by the Colombia-Venezuela border where the basin grades into the Barinas-Apure Basin on the side. The Catatumbo Basin, representing the Colombian portion of the larger Maracaibo Basin borders the Llanos Basin in the northwest and the western boundary is formed by the foothills ( Piedemonte) of the Eastern Cordillera Basin, the sedimentary basin covering the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes.
Tectonics
The basin is bound to the west by the Eastern Frontal Fault System, a long fault system connecting the North Andes and South American Plates and thus the Eastern Cordillera Basin and the Llanos Basin. The fault system has an average strike of 042.1±19, but this orientation varies greatly along its course. The 1827, 1834, 1917, 1967, 1995, and 2008 earthquakes were all caused by fault movement as part of the system.
[Paris et al., 2000a, p.36] The faults formed because of the convergence of two plates, leading to compressional stresses that form thrust complexes. The thrust complexes and continued compression would cause uplift that developed the Andes and the associated basin. The foreland development of the basin is associated with the Eastern Cordillera caused by compressional forces forming inland subsidence.
The uplift caused isostatic subsidence that would lead to the evolution of the Llanos Basin. Because of the desequilibrium caused by the uplift, the erosion and deposition rates are amplified within the near Andes and Llanos Basin. The watershed was also affected by tectonics because of different erosion rates and change in landscape.
Basin history
The tectonic history of the Llanos Basin, a
foreland basin formed on top of
Mesozoic ,
Paleozoic metasediments and
Precambrian basement underlain by continental crust, goes back to the
Early Jurassic.
The Andean orogeny, represented by the tectonic uplift of the Colombian Eastern Ranges and its northern extension, the Serranía del Perijá, caused tilting and uplift in the Llanos Basin. During the Andean orogenic phase, the paleotemperatures in the basin dropped considerably; in the Baja Guajira area from in the Early Miocene to in the Late Miocene.[Hernández Pardo et al., 2009, p.122] In the Late Miocene to Pliocene, the major faults to the southwest of the Cocinetas Basin, the Oca and Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Faults were tectonically active.[Hernández Pardo et al., 2009, p.28]
Basement
The
stratigraphy of the Llanos Basin ranges, depending on the definition from either
Jurassic or
Paleozoic to recent. The basement is formed by the westernmost extensions of the
Guiana Shield. Remnants of these
Precambrian formations are found as
in the far east of Colombia (Cerros de Mavecure), in the Serranía de la Macarena to the southwest of the basin and in the
of the Serranía de Chiribiquete to the southeast.
The Proterozoic crystalline rocks are overlain by metamorphic rock sedimentary rock and ranging in age from Cambrian to Devonian. Younger and contemporaneous Paleozoic deposits are only found in the subsurface and in regional correlative units as the Floresta and of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense to the direct northwest and the Río Cachirí Group of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin farther northwest of the Llanos Basin.
The units found in the Llanos Basin pertain to the Farallones Group and comprise the Valle del Guatiquía Red Beds, Pipiral Shale and the Gutiérrez Sandstone.[Plancha 266, 1998]
Stratigraphy
Paleozoic
- Cambro-Ordovician
- Pre-Devonian
-
Quetame Group
-
Río Guamal Metasiltstones
-
Guayabetal Phyllites and Quartzites
-
San Cristóbal Quartzites and Phyllites
-
Susumuco Metaconglomerates and Phyllites
- Devonian
Jurassic
Petroleum geology
The Llanos Basin is the most prolific hydrocarbon basin of Colombia, hosting well-known petroleum deposits as Caño Limón, Rubiales and other fields. Nine of the twenty most producing oil fields of Colombia are situated in the Llanos Basin.
Fields
Based on data released in March 2018, Colombia is the 21st oil producer in the world. Daily production dropped in 2017 to .
[ Producción de crudo bajó en 30.879 barriles por día en 2017 - El Tiempo] In 2016, twenty oilfields produced 66% of all oil of Colombia, listed below in bold.
[ En 20 campos se produce el 66 % del petróleo del país - El Tiempo] The total proven reserves of Colombia were in 2016.
[ Oil reserves per department - 2016 - ANH]
Major oil fields in the Llanos Basin are:[Mojica et al., 2009, p.30]
-
Other fields
[
]
-
Caño Verde
-
Chaparrito
-
Concesión
-
Corcel
-
Cravo Sur
-
La Gloria
-
Santiago
-
Trinidad
-
Valdivia
Mining
Mining activities in the Llanos Basin are restricted to certain areas, resulting in less conflicts, more common with indigenous peoples in the Amazonian part of Colombia.
[ Mapa de Territorios Indígenas y Minerales Preciosos]
In San José del Guaviare platinum is mined.[ Producción de platino – UPME]
Paleontology
Compared to many fossiliferous formations in Colombia, the Llanos Basin has been lean in fossil content. Most of the basin stratigraphy is only known from wells.
Paleozoic surrounding and perforating the planar geography have provided fossils dating back to the Cambrian; the Duda Formation and Ariarí Formations.
Several fossiliferous formations of contemporaneous depositional environments have provided many unique fossils indicative of paleoclimatic conditions; turtle fossils were described from Los Cuervos in the Cesar-Ranchería Basin, and the Mirador Formation in the Catatumbo Basin direct northwest of the Llanos Basin has provided many fossil flora.[Jaramillo & Dilcher, 2001]
- Other correlative units with surrounding basins
See also
-
-
Neuquén Basin, major petroleum producing basin of Argentina
-
Santos Basin, major petroleum producing basin of Brazil
-
Eastern Venezuela Basin, primary petroleum producing basin of Venezuela
Sources
Notes
Bibliography
General
Hydrodynamics
Tectonics
Petroleum
Paleontology
Reports
Maps
- Departmental
- Local
Further reading
