BASEMENT CONFIGURATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN SOUTH AMERICA - CARIBBEAN MARGIN FROM RECENT GEOPHYSICAL DATA

Abstract

The oceanic nature of the crust in northern Colombia (underlying the Lower Magdalena Basins) has been postulated by different authors as a northern extension of the Cretaceous, mafic and ultramafic rocks accreted to the western margin of northwest Colombia (in the Western Cordillera and Baudo range). Localized, small outcrops of oceanic affinity rocks seem to support this hypothesis. However, geophysical data do not support this northern extension, but clearly mark the boundary between the collisional Panamá terrane with northern South America and the over thrusting of the latter on top of the obliquely convergent Caribbean plate.  We produced maps to basement and Moho topography by integrated modeling of gravity, magnetics, seismic reflection surveys and well data from northwest Colombia and the southwestern Caribbean. In areas with good seismic coverage, the basement under the Lower Magdalena Basins (LMB) is represented by a clear reflector. In areas where seismic data shows poor imaging or is absent, we use a back stripping methodology to model first the sedimentary section, with known densities, composition and geometry controlled by oil wells and high quality seismic data, and then the deeper section. 2,5D gravity and magnetics modeling results in an initial Moho that can be extended to the entire region based on the control of available seismic refraction points. This controlled Moho provides the basis for basement modeling for the whole area and this sequence is iterated for several sections across the region.  Our results indicate that the crust under northern Colombia is continental to thinned continental (transitional) in nature, with densities between 2,6 and 2,7 g/cm3. Our model also requires a dense wedge of sediments (density 2,5 g/cm3) at the base of the modern fold belt, which may represent a fossil sedimentary wedge attached to the continental margin. This wedge may have served as a backstop for the modern fold belt. The gravity modeling does not require oceanic crust to form the basement in the Sinú and San Jacinto fold belts as previously suggested. Discrete layers and thin slivers of oceanic sediments and basement could have been scrapped off the incoming plate and thrusted into an accretionary mélange, and eventually exposed at the surface, as seen in the Mulatos, Chalan and Cansona locations.  The shape of the continental wedge / oceanic crust boundary resembles that of a very low angle/flat subduction zone (ß angle between 2º to 3º), and is interpreted here as a low angle over thrusting of northern South America riding in a highly oblique direction over the underlying Caribbean plate. The map to basement depth obtained during this study forms the basis for basin analysis, oil maturation and evolutionary studies of the region. As an example, we apply our map to a flexural analysis of the LMB.