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Geological Society of America Bulletin

The Palestina Fault, Colombia
TOMAS FEININGER Geological Society of America Bulletin 1970;81, no. 4;1201-1216 doi: 10.1130/0016-7606(1970)81[1201:TPFC]2.0.CO;2

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Notes

Copyright 1970, The Geological Society of America, Inc. Copyright is not claimed on any material prepared by U.S. government employees within the scope of their employment.

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TOMAS FEININGER U.S. Geological Survey, Medellln, Colombia The Palestina Fault, Colombia ABSTRACT The Palestina fault is an inactive right-lateral wrench fault more than 350 km long in the largely metamorphic and igneous terrain of the northern Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. It strikes north to north-northeast, nearly parallel to the regional Andean structures. Much of the fault is followed by straight canyons 50 to 600 m deep. A zone of breccia and mylomte less than 50 m thick marks the fault. Rock is intensely fractured within 50 m of this breccia zone. Deformational effects of the Palestina include large fault-block slivers of megabreccia and drag "tails" that contain some allochthonous material. A gravity profile across the Palestina shows no associated anomaly. Horizontal displacement on the Palestina of 27.7 km is well documented because the fault has offset ten unique hthologic, metamorphic, and structural features that have been mapped on both blocks. INTRODUCTION Wrench faults and their role in the structural evolution of the earth's crust have been appreciated only recently, as is apparent by the paucity of literature on these features prior to 1950. This is largely due to the difficulty in recognizing most wrench faults and in documenting the sense and magnitude of their displacements. In the words of deSitter (1964, p. 143-144): "As regards the larger wrench faults, it is for several reasons extremely difficult to prove anything except their strike, and relatively few are definitely determined as wrench faults." Of these several reasons, the following are particularly important: (1) Rock along most wrench faults is either deeply weathered or covered by alluvial deposits (deSitter, 1964, p. 144). (2) The vertical component of movement on some wrench faults is conspicuous, and accordingly they may be misinterpreted as normal faults (deSitter, 1964, p. 144). (3) Commonly the relative positions of homologous elements on opposite sides of a wrench fault do not allow an unequivocal interpretation of whether the displacement is due to horizontal or vertical movement or both (deSitter, 1964, p. 144). (4) The displacement on many wrench faults These offset features are: marble, quartzite, feldspathic and aluminous gneiss, dionte, zones of diorite mixed with Precambrian gneiss, hornblende gabbro, Cretaceous shale, metamorphic isograds, a major wrench fault, and several minor faults. The Palestina fault is only one of several recently recognized wrench faults in the northern Central Cordillera, and its documentation should call attention to the possible importance of these features in the tectonics of the area. Published analyses of wrench-fault tectonics in northern Colombia and Venezuela assume a genetic relationship between all the wrench faults: they originated in response to a single unchanging regional stress system. A more meaningful analysis might result from the individual study of smaller geographic areas and consideration of the relative ages of the wrench faults. is so large that geologic mapping of restricted areas may not encounter correlative elements on the two sides of the fault. Once a wrench fault has been recognized, especially if it is a large one, opinions on the magnitude of displacement commonly vary greatly among geologists. An example is the Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone of California. Here, 50 mi of displacement is postulated by Stewart (1967), 30 mi by McKee (1968), and 5 mi by Wright and Troxel (1967). Even the sense of movement on some wrench faults is disputed. The Bocono fault, Venezuela, is interpreted by Rod (1956) as right-lateral with 33 km of displacement, whereas Raasveldt (1956) interprets the same fault as left-lateral. To date, probably only one large wrench fault, the Great Glen fault in Scotland, is so well documented (Kennedy, 1946) that no doubt is left as to either its sense or exact magnitude of displacement. The purpose of the present paper is threefold. One is to discuss in some detail a recently discovered wrench fault in Colombia, that has almost 30 km of right-lateral displacement. This fault, here named the Palestina fault, can be documented with unusual precision because it has offset 10 unique lithologic, metamorphic, and structural features that have been mapped

Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 81, p. 1201-1216, 6 figs., April 1970 1201

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T. FEININGER-THE PALESTINA FAULT, COLOMBIA C (77 to 84 F), depending upon altitude. Seasonal variations are absent due to the nearequatorial location (lat. 6 30' N.), and frosts are unknown. Annual rainfall is between 300 and 500 cm (120 and 200 in.) and is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, although January and February are the driest months (Banco de la Repiiblica, 1959, cartog. 3). Bedrock has been weathered deeply, and exposures of fresh rock are limited. Nevertheless, outcrops are reasonably plentiful in streams and rivers, some of which afford nearly continuous exposure of fresh rock over tens or even hundreds of meters. The Palestina fault strikes northeast to north, and over much of its course, it roughly parallels the Magdalena River (Fig. 1C). Geologists of the Inventario have mapped the fault in the field over a distance of 160 km, from the northern part of the Department of Caldas to near the town of Segovia in the Department of Antioquia. It can be traced on aerial photographs an additional 200 km to the north, where it is lost to view under Holocene alluvium of the Magdalena River near the town of El Banco (Fig. 1C). The fault is known to continue south of the area mapped, but its precise course is uncertain. The Palestina fault is here named after a station on the yard-gauge Antioquian Railroad; this station is nearly astride the fault (Fig. 1 A). It is the only place on the known length of the fault where it can be reached on land by means other than muleback or walking. Near the known limits of the Palestina fault, satellite faults branch from it at low angles. Many of these satellite faults parallel the Palestina for considerable distances, and each has absorbed some of its displacement. A part in southeastern Antioquia Department, most of which is shown on Figure 1 A, may be the only place where all lateral displacement occurred on the Palestina alone. It is difficult to weigh the importance of most of the satellite faults relative to each other or to the Palestina. To the north the geology is poorly known, and to the south the trend of the rock units changes from south to south-southwest and becomes parallel with the strikes of all the faults, so that estimates of the displacements on any of them are difficult to make. Nevertheless, metamorphic isograds offset by the Jetudo fault (Fig. 1C) suggest 12 km of right-lateral displacement, whereas the Palestina between the Jetudo and El Mulato faults, based on the

on both sides of the fault. Restoration of the displacement of the fault with corresponding left-lateral movement brings all ten features into alignment across the fault trace. Another purpose is to call attention to the possible importance of wrench faults in the tectonics of the northern Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. The third purpose is to assess the regional significance of the Palestina and associated wrench faults with respect to the tectonic framework of northern Colombia and Venezuela, and to discuss published interpretations of wrench-fault tectonics in the region. Recognition and documentation of the Palestina fault is one result of the systematic regional geologic mapping program that is part of a mineral-resources study of Colombia being undertaken jointly by the Colombian Inventario Minero Nacional, Ministerio de Minas y Petroleos, and the U.S. Geological Survey. The joint study is sponsored by the Colombian Government and by the Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State. THE PALESTINA FAULT Geologic and Geographic Setting The Andes Mountains in Colombia form three subparallel and geologically distinct Cordilleras. The Palestina fault is on the east flank of the Central Cordillera, near its northern end. This part of the Central Cordillera, which lies between the Cauca and Magdalena Rivers, is composed chiefly of Paleozoic metamorphic rocks discontinuously mantled by Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks which in turn have been intruded by enormous Upper Cretaceous quartz diorite batholiths. North of the latitude of Medellin, the Central Cordillera diminishes in altitude progressively, and about 300 km northeast of the city, it passes beneath Tertiary and Holocene sediments of the Lower Magdalena Basin (Fig. 1C). The terrain through which the Palestina fault passes is mountainous and maturely dissected. Level ground is restricted to sparse alluviated valleys that are generally no more than 200 m wide. Total relief is about 700 m; altitudes range from 150 m on the Rio Samana Norte to nearly 900 m on hills in the northwest. Local relief is mostly 200 m or more, and in the canyon of the Rio Samana Norte, it is as much as 600 m. Access is by mule trails and the railroad. There are no roads. The climate is hot and humid. The average annual temperature ranges from 25 to 29

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THE PALESTINA FAULT offset of marble beds, has about 15 km of right-lateral displacement. The total, 27 km, is very nearly the amount of displacement that is well documented for the Palestina alone just to the north. Farther south, relationships are less clear. The Palestina fault just north of its junction with the Cocorna Sur fault may have as little as 1 km of right-lateral displacement. The Cocorna Sur fault, however, appears to have a large displacement, possibly exceeding 20 km. Whether the Palestina could be recognized as a discrete entity far south of the mapped area is not known. It may become lost in a network of wrench faults, each with small right-lateral displacement. The part of the Palestina fault that has been most intensely studied by the Inventario is a zone 72 km long that is unaffected by satellite faults and lies about 100 km east of Medelh'n. A detailed geologic map (Fig. 1A) of a strip 15 km wide and covering about 1000 km 2 centered on that 72-km stretch is the foundation of the ensuing discussions, unless stated otherwise. Gravity Data While undertaking a gravity survey of northwestern Colombia, Professor James E. Case of Texas A. and M. University ran a gravity traverse along the Antioquian Railroad from Medellin to Puerto Berrio on the Magdalena River. A part of that traverse centered on the Palestina fault is shown in the simple Bouguer gravity profile reproduced in Figure 2. The smoothness of the profile across the Palestina shows that vertical displacement on the fault cannot be appreciable but is consistent with an interpretation of horizontal displacement. Field Characteristics The most outstanding field characteristics of the Palestina fault are its straightness and bold topographic expression. Over most of its length, the fault is marked by straight canyons 50 to 600 m deep. For example, of the 72-km stretch of the Palestina shown on Figure 1A, a length of 62 km is followed by nearly rectilinear drainage that contrasts sharply with the dendritic drainage elsewhere in the area. From the air, the fault trace looks like a colossal trench, a virtually uninterrupted gash through the rugged mountainous terrain. The fault is marked by a narrow zone of breccia and mylonite that rarely crops out and is nowhere well exposed. In most streams that flow along or across the fault, the zone is a gap

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of no outcrop, 20 to 50 m wide, that lies between exposures of intensely fractured rock. This gap is especially conspicuous in the Rios Cupina, Nus, and Samana Norte. The attitude of the fault thus cannot be measured directly, but the regional straightness of the trace, even through areas of great local relief, indicates that it must be vertical or nearly so. Fault breccia is exposed in 17 places along the Palestina in the 72-km stretch shown on Figure 1A, either in weathered (hydrothermally altered?) outcrops or in residual boulders of fresh rock. Breccia is particularly well developed in marble (Fig. 3) and quartzite, but it has been found in all rocks cut by the Palestina. Clasts are angular and range from less than 1 cm to 1 m across. They are set in a dull-lustered cataclastic matrix, except in brecciated marble where the matrix is chiefly recrystallized white calcite. Clast-to-matrix ratios exceed 2:1. Schistose mylonite derived from a marble lens in Precambrian gneiss and composed entirely of extremely fine-grained calcite is exposed with breccia 1.2 km north of the Rio Cupina. On each side of the Palestina, lie belts of intensely fractured rock generally no more than 50 m wide (Fig. 4). Rock beyond these fracture belts shows no evidence of faulting. In a few places, the Palestina fault divides to form a pair of nearly parallel faults that reunite to enclose fault-block slivers of mappable size. The largest sliver is in part followed by the Rio Volcan and is 11 km long and less than 400 m wide (Fig. 1A). The slivers consist of megabreccias produced by drag along the fault. They are composed of jumbled rock masses, individually tens to perhaps hundreds of meters thick, that have been torn from the opposing fault blocks during movement on the Palestina. For example, large masses of Cretaceous black shale are exposed in one fault-block sliver, 500 m south of the Rio Cupina. The nearest outcrops of this shale along the fault, and the only possible sources, are 8 km to the north or 17 km to the south. Other large-scale effects of drag along the Palestina fault have been found. The most obvious effects on the west block are the long southward-pointing "tail" of quartzite and the isolated small bodies of marble that extend southward from the main body of marble nearly to the railroad. The small marble bodies afford unequivocal evidence of emplacement by drag. This marble is distinctive; it is fine grained, gray, and extensively brec-

r- 0 MILLIGALS

JO

-e-

-ee-

20

o-

*--

-30

- -40
-50

- 1000 METERS - 500

10 KILOMETERS

Figure 2. Gravity data, Palestina fault. Bottom: sketch geologic map, letter symbols as on Figure 1. Light lines, contacts; heavy lines, faults. Circles are gravity stations. Middle: Geologic cross section projected from the route of the railroad onto a vertical east-west plane. Top: Simple Bouguer gravity profile of the cross section (gravity datagram Professor James E. Case).

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Figure 3. Breccia along the Palestina fault. Boulder (4 m long) of brecciated marble in the Rio Alicante, 8 km south-southeast of La Susana.

Figure 4. Intensely fractured Precambrian feldspar-quartz gneiss adjacent to the Palestina fault on the east block, Rio Cupina. Black area at lower right is water-filled hole.

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T. FEININGERTHE PALESTINA FAULT, COLOMBIA fault started (Fig. IB). This map will hereafter be called the reconstruction. The reconstruction is not a geologic map of the area in pre-Palestina time, but rather is a geologic map of the present topographic surface of the restored blocks that prior to faulting was at depth in the crust. The reconstruction was prepared in the following manner. The south half of the east block was transferred from the geologic map (Fig. 1A) to the reconstruction (Fig. IB) without modification. The corresponding part of the west block was then traced onto the reconstruction so as to be flush with the east block, and positioned so that the fault that separates marble and quartzite on each block passed without offset across the trace of the Palestina. This reconstruction restores 27.7 km of right-lateral displacement on the Palestina fault. A few modifications, however, were made on the west block. The drag features discussed earlierthe fault-block slivers, "tails" of quartzite and Cretaceous shale, and isolated marble bodies south to the railroadwere eliminated. Furthermore, the Palestina is gently sinuous, barely evident on the geologic map, south of the Rio Cupina. These slight curves had to be "ironed out" to avoid gaps between or overlaps of the two blocks. To achieve this, the west block had to be distorted locally in the reconstruction. Nowhere did this distortion exceed 8 degrees of rotation, and most was between only 2 and 4 degrees. At the Rio Cupina, the Palestina curves northward and within 6 km, its strike changes from N. 16 E. to N. 2 E. This regional bend of the Palestina produces a gap between the blocks at the north end of the reconstruction. The gap was left open, because it is not clear precisely how it should be closed. Note, however, that restoring the small left-lateral wrench fault that has offset the Otii fault near the Rio San Bartolome, and restoring the "popped out" wedge of quartzite bounded by wrench faults 5 km south of La Susana (Fig. 1A) would tend to close the gap. These small faults may be contemporaneous with the Palestina, in which case they should not appear in the reconstruction. A similar reconstruction was made using high-altitude aerial photographs. Two such photographs, each centered near where the marble of the metasedimentary rocks is truncated by the Palestina on the west and east blocks, respectively, have been cut along the fault and placed opposite one another so as

ciated. The narrow elongate marble bodies are parallel to the Palestina fault and not parallel to the regional structural trend of the adjacent rocks. The southernmost marble bodies are encased in feldspathic and aluminous gneiss of high metamorphic rank (sillimanite grade). Nearby marbles, in beds 1 to 10 m thick (too thin to show on the geologic map), that are intimately intercalated with the gneiss and clearly autochthonous are medium to coarse grained and brilliantly white. The fine-grained gray marble is obviously allochthonous; it was not metamorphosed at the site where it is actually found nor under the same conditions as the adjacent gneiss, but instead formed elsewhere under conditions of low-grade regional metamorphism. The nearest outcrops of marble petrographically similar and large enough to be a plausible source of the isolated marble bodies are in the Rio Alicante south of the small stock of diorite, about 13 km north of the southernmost isolated marble body on the west block. An analogous but smaller body of fine-grained brecciated marble emplaced by drag along the Palestina fault occurs on the east block, 5 km north of the Rio Samana Norte (Fig. 1A). Also, the south end of the Cretaceous shale on the west block of the Palestina north of the Rio San Bartolome appears to have been dragged southward in similar fashion to the "tail" of quartzite mentioned above. Outcrop in the area, however, is scarce, and neither the shape nor the details of this feature are well known. Horizontal Displacement1 The drag features discussed above consistently indicate right-lateral displacement along the Palestina fault. Simple inspection of the geologic map (Fig. 1A) suggests that this displacement is nearly 30 km. The reality of such a large displacement will be carefully documented in the following pages. To reinforce the arguments to be presented, I have prepared a map in which the two blocks have been restored to the positions that they occupied before movement on the Palestina Since the writing of this paper, a grooved and slickensided vertical surface several square meters in area has been exposed in the Palestina fault on an allochthonous block of marble (not shown on Fig. 1) in a cut along a relocation of the Antioquian Railroad about 300 m southwest of Palestina Station. The grooves and slickensides bear N. 15 E. and are horizontal. A faint directional roughness along the grooves indicates rightlateral movement.
1

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THE PALESTINA FAULT to restore the displacement of the Palestina (Fig. 5). The areas of the two photos are outlined on the geologic map (Fig. 1A). Offset Features Ten unique lithologic, metamorphic, and structural features have been offset by the Palestina fault in the area of Figure 1A. On the following pages, these features and their displacements will be discussed in detail. Marble. The most conspicuous unit within the Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks is finegrained gray marble, which forms a northstriking belt as much as 3 km wide. The marble produces a distinctive and unique topography marked by groups of crowded haystack hills, 50 to 350 m high, that have steep to vertical walls which support only scanty vegetation. This topography is very evident on aerial photographs (Fig. 5). Some horizons in the marble contain rhythmic 1- to 10-cm-thick beds of white quartzite that weather into positive relief and give outcrops an eyecatching ribbed surface. West of the Palestina fault, these horizons are particularly abundant near the confluence of Quebrada Guardasol and the Rio Alicante, whereas to the east, they are abundant in the walls of caverns between the Palestina and Otu faults north of the Rfo Samana Norte. In the reconstruction, the marble forms a single uninterrupted belt; furthermore, the two areas in which thin rhythmic quartzite beds are intercalated with the marble are contiguous, whereas today these areas are separated by nearly 30 km. Quartzite. The marble is bounded by distinctive fine-grained and finely laminated tan quartzite. In two places, however, the Otu fault has cut out the quartzite and put the marble directly in contact with diorite. Quartzite on the west block faces diorite and Cretaceous shale across the Palestina fault, and that on the east block faces feldspathic and aluminous gneiss. The quartzite forms a single belt in the reconstruction, and the two places on the west and east blocks of the Palestina fault where it has been cut out by the Otu fault form a single stretch 7 km long. In addition, a small wedge of quartzite in normal stratigraphic contact with marble, but in fault contact with the main body of quartzite in Quebrada Alejandria on the west block (Fig. 1A), falls directly opposite (in the reconstruction) a corresponding wedge of quartzite that is today

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27.7 km away on the east block in the Rio Samana Norte. Feldspathic and Aluminous Gneiss. Most of the feldspathic and aluminous gneiss is medium to coarse grained and migmatitic; it contains pods and lenses of granite generally a few centimeters thick that are separated by silvery-gray laminae composed of mica and sillimanite. In the south part of the area (Fig. 1A), this gneiss is found on both sides of the Palestina, and the geologic map of that part alone does not suggest the presence of a major fault. To the north, however, the gneiss on the west block faces quartzite, marble, and diorite on the east block. In the reconstruction, the gneiss faces only identical gneiss across the trace of the Palestina and forms a continuous unit. Diorite. Medium-grained, mostly saussuritized and chloritized, massive to foliated, plutonic igneous rock that ranges from diorite to quartz diorite in composition is here collectively called diorite on Figure 1. Excluding a small and faulted stock southeast of La Susana, and two stocks near the Rio Samana Norte (Fig. 1A), all the diorite lies north and east of the Otu fault. The two largest bodies of diorite, one on each side of the Palestina fault, are roughly triangular on the geologic map. Each is bounded by the Otu and Palestina faults and Cretaceous shale (partly in fault contact to the south). Movement along the Palestina has placed the diorite in contact with such diverse rock types as Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic feldspathic and aluminous gneiss, quartzite, and marble. In the reconstruction, the two largest bodies of diorite that today are completely separated from one another are united to form a single body of batholithic dimensions. Also, the small stock southeast of La Susana falls directly opposite an even smaller stock presently in the Rio Samana Norte, 27.5 km to the south. The diorite of the two stocks is virtually identical. It is composed of saussuritized subhedral to euhedral plagioclase, euhedral hornblende that has light-yellow to dark green-brown pleochroism and pronounced dispersion (r > v), thoroughly chloritized biotite, and anhedral strained quartz. Accessories include apatite of two generations, and clear subhedral zircons surrounded by weak pleochroic halos in chlorite. A modal analysis of a random sample from each of the two parts of what clearly was a single stock in pre-Palestina time is given in Table 1.

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------- -- - --

Figure 5. High-altitude aerial photographic reconstruction of a part of the Palestina fault. Note haystack hill topography produced by marble. Areas covered by photos are indicated on Figure 1A.

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THE PALESTINA FAULT The small wedge of diorite along the Palestina fault on the west block that crops out as a southward-pointing appendage on the stock southeast of La Susana, is not matched by a corresponding body of diorite on the east block. This relation suggests that the wedge is a piece torn from the contiguous stock to the north and was emplaced tectonically during movement on the Palestina. Although this could not be proved in the field, it is a plausible explanation and is compatible with the previously described well-documented drag features on the same block only a few kilometers to the south. Accordingly, the wedge has not been included in the reconstruction. Zones of Diorite Mixed with Precambrian Gneiss. In a few places, not shown on the geologic map, the diorite is so thoroughly mixed with the Precambrian gneiss that it is uncertain whether such areas should be mapped as diorite or gneiss. Where diorite predominates, the mixture is an intrusive breccia containing discordant inclusions of gneiss without prevailing orientation. Where the two rocks are subequal, the diorite forms countless irregular discordant to concordant intrusive bodies, ranging from 1 to 100 m across, in the gneiss. The only extensive areas of this mixed rock are in the Rio Cupina on the west block between the Otu and Palestina faults, and on the east block along the railroad in Quebrada Malena between the Palestina and Nus faults. Today these unique exposures are 29.5 km apart where truncated by the Palestina fault. In the reconstruction, they are separated by less than 2 km. Hornblende Gabbro. A half dozen stocks of distinctive dark-green to black coarsegrained hornblende gabbro, ranging in area from a few thousand square meters to 1.5 sq km, occur adjacent to the Palestina fault. Two of the stocks lie close to one another on the west block, east of La Susana; the other four stocks form a cluster near the railroad on the east block. Presently the stocks are widely scattered, and the most distant are 30 km apart. In the reconstruction, however, the six stocks form a relatively compact northeasttrending group in which the most distant are only 12 km apart. Cretaceous Shale. A narrow north-striking belt of crumpled Cretaceous black shale that contains fragmentary plant fossils has been offset by the Palestina fault (Fig. 1A). The separation of the truncated ends of the belt is TABLE 1. MODAL ANALYSES OF Two SAMPLES OF DIORITE

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Sample AG-705A HG-766 Quartz Plagioclase Amphibole Chlorite and biotite Accessories Total

10.5 65.0 13.4 10.0 1.1

100.0

8.3 58.8 23.8 8.9 0.2

100.0

AG-705A, from west block, 7 km south-southeast of La Susana; HG-766, from east block, Rio Samana Norte 6 km north of the Rio Nare. Analyses in volume percent based on about 1000 point counts, each spaced over standard thin sections. 26.3 km, which is a little less than the offset of the rocks discussed above. The precise cause of this discrepancy is unknown. Perhaps during movement on the Palestina, rocks in the northern part of the area (Fig. 1A) were deformed plastically in a broad zone bordering the fault that could not be recognized in the field. Displacement on the fault measured by matching offset features at or near the fault plane in the zone of plastic deformation would therefore be less than the displacement measured by the use of reference points outside the plastically deformed zone. Conversely, in the south, deformation caused by movement on the Palestina may have been entirely brittle and restricted to the narrow discontinuous zones on each side of the Palestina in which are found the "tail" of quartzite on the west and the small bodies of brecciated marble on both blocks (described earlier). Under these conditions, the displacement of rocks contiguous to the fault, excluding the allochthonous products of brittle deformation, would be greater in the south than in the north. On the other hand, the lesser offset of the Cretaceous shale relative to the other rocks may be related to the northward bend of the Palestina fault that begins at the Rio Cupina. During movement on the fault, the west block would have been subjected to compression by the east block as it moved relatively southward along this bend. Such compression on the west block would be most intense in the area now bounded by the Rio San Bartolome and the southern stock of hornblende gabbro. If the compression could produce a shortening of a little more than 1 km on that part of the west block, it would account for the discrepancy.

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T. FEININGER-THE PALESTINA FAULT, COLOMBIA displacement may have taken place, and that the east block may be slightly downdropped relative to the west block. Structural attitudes and the distribution of metamorphic isograds on the west block show that the marble occupies a syncline. Although the rocks are intensely crumpled and in places even isoclinally folded, the syncline is shallow. Local topographic relief is great enough so that at an altitude of about 350 m in the deep canyons of the Rios Cupina and Alicante and some of their tributaries, the underlying quartzite in the keel of the syncline is exposed at several places. Furthermore, the syncline is shallow enough to have allowed the marble to be entirely eroded from the upthrown block of a small normal fault between the Rios Cupina and San Bartolome (Fig. 1A). On the east block, however, the base of the marble unit is nowhere exposed in the keel of the corresponding syncline, not even in the Samana Norte canyon at altitudes as low as 150 m. These data imply that the east block is downthrown at least 200 m relative to the west block. Structural data are inadequate, however, to indicate the precise plunge of the syncline, and some or even all of the proposed vertical displacement may be illusory.
Age Movement on the Palestina fault cannot be dated precisely. The youngest rock offset by the Palestina is the Cretaceous shale.2 Fossils in the shale near Remedios, about 30 km north of the area shown on Figure 1A, establish an Albian-Aptian (middle Cretaceous) age. The displacement of the Cretaceous shale, however, is a little less than that of the other (and older) rocks, as was pointed out earlier. At first glance, this relation might be taken as evidence of some pre-Albian-Aptian movement on the Palestina. This suggestion must be rejected, however, because the same Cretaceous shale is truncated by the Otu fault just east of the

It may be significant that the other offset features on the west block, all of which have virtually identical displacements (27.7 + 0.3 km), are south of the bend in the Palestina and would therefore not have been affected by the proposed compression. Metamorphic Isograds. The intensity of metamorphism of the Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks varies appreciably. Three metamorphic grades have been recognized in thin-section study of mineral assemblages in pelitic beds: high-grade sillimanite-bearing rocks; middle-grade rocks containing andalusite or staurolite; and low-grade (greenschist facies) rocks containing only quartz, micas, and albite. Rocks of each of the three grades on both blocks have been delimited by a pair of metamorphic isograds that are located with an accuracy of + 500 m. In the reconstruction, the isograds fall within 250 m of a perfect match across the trace of the Palestina. Otii Fault. On the west block of the Palestina, a major regional fault, the Otu, joins the Palestina 6.3 km southeast of La Susana. Near that junction, the Otu separates marble and diorite. Another major fault that separates the same two rock units on the east block joins the Palestina near the Rio Samana Norte, 27.6 km south of the junction with the Otu. In the reconstruction, these two major faults not only fall opposite each other, but they meet the trace of the Palestina at identical angles and cross it as a straight line. Clearly the two are the same fault (thus they have been given a single name) that predates and has been offset by the Palestina. Minor Faults. Three minor faults cut marble, quartzite, and diorite on the west block of the Palestina just south of the Otii fault. Two minor faults were mapped in corresponding positions on the east block along the Rio Samana Norte. It is possible that the third fault is present as well, but the extremely rugged topography of the Samana Norte canyon makes detailed mapping there impossible. Vertical Displacement The gravity data discussed earlier (Fig. 2) and the excellent match of offset features achieved in the reconstruction through solely horizontal movement indicate that the amount of vertical displacement on the Palestina fault must be small. Nevertheless, evidence afforded by the marble unit suggests that some vertical

In a new exposure along a relocation of the Antioquian Railroad 100 m southwest of Palestina Station, brecciated migmatitic feldspathic and aluminous gneiss has been cut by two parallel 75-cm-thick, fine-grained intermediate dikes. All rock in the exposure is thoroughly weathered, and it is not possible to determine precisely the composition of the dikes. The texture and general aspect of the dikes, however, are like those of the youngest dikes known in the area which are genetically related to the nearby Antioquian batholith. If this proposed correlation is correct, then all movement on the Palestina fault would be pre-Tertiary.

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REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PALESTINA FAULT area of the geologic map (Fig. 1A). As the Otu has in turn been displaced by the Palestina, the post-Albian-Aptian age of the Palestina is firmly established; hence, mechanisms such as those discussed in the section on the Cretaceous shale, rather than pre-Albian-Aptian movement, must be invoked to account for the slightly lesser displacement of the Cretaceous shale relative to the other rocks. Considerable evidence indicates that the Palestina fault is no longer active. No seismicity recorded at the Geophysical Institute of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, can be correlated with the trace of the Palestina or its satellite faults in Antioquia (J. Rafael Goberna, S.J., 1966, written commun.). Furthermore, such morphologic features characteristic of active wrench faults as scarps, sag ponds, truncated spurs, and offset drainage are all wanting along the Palestina. To be sure, much of the drainage from the highlands to the west is sharply deflected by the Palestina and follows it for considerable distances before resuming an eastward course to the Magdalena. This is partly because the breccia and mylonite of the fault zone are easily eroded, and also because in most places the fault is a boundary between unlike rocks that have unlike responses to erosion. The deflections, however, have no directional preference. The Ri'os Volcan and Nus follow the Palestina southward 8.5 and 1.5 km, respectively, whereas the Alicante and Samana Norte follow it northward 13 and 9 km, respectively. Other drainage, such as the Rios San Bartolome and Cupina, and Quebrada Malena, cross the Palestina without deflection. REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PALESTINA FAULT Northern Central Cordillera of Colombia Documentation of large displacement on the Palestina fault should call attention to the possible importance of wrench faults in the tectonic framework of the northern Central Cordillera of Colombia. In addition, recognition of the field characteristics of the Palestina has provided insight on nearby faults newly discovered by the Inventario Minero Nacional and on faults previously known but poorly understood. Four such faults are discussed below. Otu Fault. An important result of deciphering the Palestina fault's displacement has been the discovery that the Otu fault does not

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terminate to the south at the Palestina, but has instead been cut and offset by it. Inventario geologists have mapped the two segments of the Otu through a distance of 90 kmthe south segment from where it emerges from beneath Tertiary sediments in the Magdalena Valley (Fig. 1C) to the Palestina fault, and the north segment from the Palestina to a point 20 km northwest of Segovia (Fig. 1C). The north segment has been mapped on aerial photographs an additional 30 km northward to where it is lost under Tertiary sediments at Zaragoza. The Otii fault is like the Palestina in that it has a narrow and inconspicuous breccia zone. Unlike the Palestina, however, the trace of the Otu is generally rather sinuous and has little topographic expression; these characteristics are consistent with the known antiquity of the Otu relative to the Palestina. The Otu fault is a truly remarkable geologic boundary; it separates blocks of nearly totally dissimilar geology and lithology. This relation alone suggests that the Otu is a wrench fault with large displacement. Only one rock, the diorite (Fig. IB), is common to both sides of the Otii, although in very unlike distribution. Near the fault on the east block, the diorite is areally important or even dominant from the Magdalena Valley to a point a few kilometers north of Segovia. On the west block, however, the diorite is restricted to small stocks in the south (Fig. IB). These stocks increase in size and abundance southward beyond the area of the geologic map (Fig. 1A). The distribution of the diorite suggests left-lateral movement on the Otii, the east block having moved north relative to the west block. Displacement may exceed 70 km. The presence of extensive areas of Precambrian and Ordovician rocks on the east block of the Otu fault is significant. Such old rocks in Colombia are largely restricted to the Serrania de la Macarena and the Guyana Shield, both east of the Andes (Trumpy, 1943). Precambrian and Ordovician rocks are known in the Colombian Andes only in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta near the north coast (C. M. Tschanz, 1966, written commun.) in the Garzon Massif in the Eastern Cordillera south of Bogota (Hubach, 1957, p. 73; Radelli, 1962, p. 17), and as a small area of Precambrian gneiss on the east flank of the Central Cordillera near the town of Payande, 250 km south of the area shown on Figure 1A (Dario Barrero, 1968, written commun.). The presence of old rocks

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T. FEININGERTHE PALESTINA FAULT, COLOMBIA

on the east block of the Otii fault could be south where followed by the Rio Nus, suggest interpreted to mean that that block has been that the Nus fault may be a wrench fault. This brought from the east, from a site farther with- view is reinforced by the smooth gravity profile in the continent. The postulated left-lateral across the fault (Fig. 2), which is irreconcilable movement of the Otu would have resulted in with large vertical displacement. Documentation of either the sense or magnitude of dissuch transport. The age of the Otu fault cannot be precisely placement of the fault, however, is hampered established. It is offset by, and thus older than, by poor outcrop and the general concordance the Palestina fault. However, the Otu is young- of the fault with regional structural trends. The er than the middle Cretaceous shale which it Nus fault does not appreciably disrupt the cuts near the Rio Samana Norte 10 km south distribution of the hornblende gabbro bodies of Virginias and 3 km east of the area shown on which suggests that either the fault has little displacement, or movement on it predates the Figure 1A. Cimitarra Fault. The Cimitarra is a long, gabbro. No corresponding fault has been recogstraight, northeast-striking fault that passes nized between diorite and Cretaceous shale near the city of Barrancabermeja on the Mag- on the west block of the Palestina, but outcrop dalena River (Fig. 1C). It has been mapped as in critical areas is exceedingly sparse. The Nus fault cuts and is thus younger than a normal fault on which the southeast block is downthrown (Servicio Geologico Nacional e the middle Cretaceous shale but is older than Inventario Minero Xacional, 1967). The trace the Otii fault, as the Otu sharply truncates of the Cimitarra is easily followed to the south- the Nus at the Rio Samana Norte 3 km east of west on aerial photographs and is continuous the area of Figure 1A (see Fig. 1C). Romeral Fault. A large north-south fault with a conspicuous fault followed by the Rio Alicante and mapped by Inventario geologists. west of Medellin (Fig. 6) was mapped and It is therefore given the same name on Figure named the Romeral fault more than 40 years 1A. ago by Grosse (1926). Recent mapping by the Field characteristics of the Cimitarra are like Facultad Nacional de Minas, Medellin, and those of the Palestina, though breccias are the Inventario has shown that the Romeral is even more abundant and the zones of fractured more than 300 km long. At the north it emerges rock that parallel the fault are considerably from under Tertiary sediments about 200 km wider than those parallel to the Palestina. Topo- north-northeast of Medellin. Fifty kilometers graphic expression of the Cimitarra is bold, and to the southwest the fault coincides with a northeast of the area shown on Figure 1A, the straight 20-km stretch of the canyon of the fault is marked by rectilinear canyons of the Rio Cauca. From there to a point south of Manizales, the limit of geologic mapping, the Rios San Bartolome, Ite, and Cimitarra. The long straight trace and topographic Romeral parallels the Cauca several kilometers expression of the Cimitarra suggest that it too to the east. is a wrench fault. Its sense of movement is The nature of the Romeral is uncertain. unknown. Its displacement may be small, as Grosse (1926, p. 292) interprets it as a highthe diorite occupies both blocks just east of the angle thrust. Its long straight course, however, area of Figure 1A. The Cimitarra dies out is like that of a wrench fault, and its field within the east block of the Palestina and no characteristics are like those of the documented corresponding fault occurs within the west wrench faults to the east (Fig. 6). Incomplete block. mapping by the Inventario near the north end The age of the Cimitarra fault is unknown. of the fault suggests possible right-lateral disIt is pre-Pliocene, as it is covered by and has not placement of several tens of kilometers. Elsedisturbed Pliocene sediments west of Barranca- where the Romeral is concordant with regional bermeja (Servicio Geologico Nacional e Inven- structure and consequently its displacement is tario Minero Nacional, 1967). The relatively obscured. wide breccia and shatter zones of the Cimitarra The Romeral is covered by and has not fault suggest it has a shallower origin and there- faulted Tertiary sediments in the north. Southfore is of a possibly younger age than the west of Medellin, however, the Romeral fault Palestina. cuts the middle of the three Tertiary units; Nus Fault. The long straight trace (Fig. this unit was mapped by Grosse (1926, p. 292, 1A) and striking topographic expression to the map 3) and dated as late Oligocene by Van der

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REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PALESTINA FAULT Hammen (1958, p. 113). The age of the Romeral relative to the ages of the other wrench faults in the northern Central Cordillera is unknown. Northern Colombia and Venezuela Large wrench faults, in part related to enormous shear systems in the Caribbean, are major structural features of northern Colombia and Venezuela (Fig. 6; Rod, 1956). Geologic information over much of the area, however, is still far from complete. For example, geologic mapping by the Inventario Minero Nacional in an area only 100 by 300 km in the Departments of Antioquia and Caldas, Colombia, has resulted in the discovery of several wrench faults more than 100 km long that were unknown only five years ago. Dozens more such faults, each one an important clue to the understanding of the regional tectonic framework, doubtless await discovery by field geologists. Other faults, concealed beneath Tertiary and Quaternary deposits and inaccessible to even the photogeologist, will be found only in the course of exploration for oil. Moody and Hill (1956) proposed that simple tangential compression could produce eight possible directions of wrench faulting. The eight directions are divided among three orders, and each direction has a predictable sense of movement. Moody and Hill further argued that a worldwide compressive stress, oriented within 20 of north-south, could account for the major wrench faults then recognized. In their analysis, they named two of the eight directions after Colombian examples: the Oca direction, N. 75 W. and right lateral, and the Colombia direction (named after the fault here designated the Santa Marta fault on Figure 6, following the preferred usage of Campbell, 1965), N. 15 W. and left lateral. Later authors attempted more detailed analyses of the wrench faults of northern Colombia and Venezuela, using the principles of Moody and Hill (1956). Alberding (1957) concluded that the compressive stress was oriented N. 15 W. - S. 15 E., rather than north-south. Rod (1958) argued for a N. 45 W. -S. 45 E. orientation, which in a later paper (1959) he suggested was a resultant stress produced by the eastward movement of the Caribbean basin relative to northern South America. On the other hand, Maxwell and Wise (1958) cautioned that not all wrench faults should be attributed to compressive stress, but that some may be produced by simple shear,

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possibly the result of subcrustal currents. Carey (1958, p. 231-233) carried this argument further and suggested that the east-west rightlateral wrench faults of northern South America were produced by continental driftthe moving apart of Africa and South America. I maintain that the lack of agreement among geologists on the causes of wrench faulting in northern Colombia and Venezuela stems not from the failure of any single proposed mechanism of wrench faulting, but rather from the acceptance of the assumption that all the wrench faults are genetically related to one another. One could hardly expect such a fortuitous circumstance in an area as geologically varied as northern South America. On the contrary, as shown below, the known wrench faults of the region are neither contemporaneous with one another, nor the products of a single unchanging stress field. The wrench faults of northern South America are not coeval. In the area dealt with in detail in the present paper, four inactive wrench faults of regional extent have different ages. The Palestina fault postdates the Otii and predates the Cimitarra. The Nus fault is older than all three. To the east, the Santa Marta fault at Bucaramanga seems inactive (Richard Goldsmith, 1968, written commun.). In Venezuela, the Bocono is active and has offset moraines of the last Pleistocene glaciation 80 to 100 m (Rod, 1956). Strong earthquakes centered at Caracas (July 1967 and September 1968) suggest that the right-lateral fault under that city is also active. A powerful argument that a single unchanging regional stress field did not produce the wrench faults is the occurrence of wrench faults of identical strike but opposite sense of movement. The strike of the right-lateral Palestina is coincident with the strikes of the left-lateral El Tigre, San Simon, Valera, and two adjacent unnamed wrench faults near Lake Maracaibo (Fig. 6). This condition seems irreconcilable with a regional stress field as envisioned by Moody and Hill (1956). More meaningful analyses of wrench-fault tectonics in northern South America might result from the individual treatment of restricted geographic areas rather than from the treatment of the entire northern part of the continent as a unit. How far south, for example, does the Caribbean shear system exercise control over wrench faults in South America? Clearly the Oca and El Pilar faults (Fig. 6) are

 Ciudad Bolivar E X P L A N A T I O N Wrench fault Dashed where inferred (1) Alberding (1957)

Thrust fault Sawteeth on upper plate

(9) Colombia Servicio Geologico Nacional and Inventario Minero Nacional (1967 (10) Unpublished mapping by the Colombia Inventario Minero Nacional

(2) Barr(1958)
(3) Campbell (1965)

(5) Raasveldt (1956) (6) Rod (1956)

(7) Rod (1958)

(4) Grosse(1926)
0

(8) Rod (1959) 100

200

300 KILOMETERS

Figure 6. Large wrench faults of northern Colombia and Venezuela.

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REFERENCES CITED of that system, but it seems less likely that the Palestina, Otii, and Cimitarra are a part of it. Will future geologists relate yet undiscovered wrench faults farther south in the Andes to the Caribbean shears? I think not. Also, more attention must be given to the ages of the wrench faults. Few data have been published on this. Careful consideration of their relative ages may reveal that some wrench faults were active in response to one stress field, and that this was followed by later activity on other wrench faults oriented favorably to a different and younger stress field. That the wrench faults originated under such dynamic and changing conditions is very compatible with the varied and complex geologic history of northern South America and should be kept in mind during future investigations. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The accompanying geologic map (Fig. 1A) is the work of 11 geologists of the Inventario

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Minero Nacional: A. Gomez P., H. Gomez M., J. Gonzalez R., G. Guarin C., Michel Hermelin, H. Lozano Q., P. Marin R., D. Mosquera T., O. Ramirez A., R. Vera L., and C. J. Vesga, in addition to myself. The mapping of more than a dozen other Inventario geologists has been referred to, particularly in the preparation of Figure 1C. Photogeologic interpretations by Taissir Kassem, also of the Inventario, have been essential, especially in tracing the Palestina fault north of the geologic map into areas that could not be visited in the field. Professor James E. Case, Texas A. and M. University, kindly gave permission to use the gravity data. Dr. Darfo Suesciin G. and Professor Gerardo Botero A. helped with the bibliography. Discussions on the regional geology of Colombia with my counterpart in the Inventario program, Dario Barrero L., were indispensable. Richard Goldsmith, U.S. Geological Survey, offered helpful suggestions to improve the original manuscript.

REFERENCES CITED Alberding, Herbert, 1957, Application of principles of wrench-fault tectonics of Moody and Hill to northern South America [and Trinidad]: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 68, no. 6, p. 785790. Banco de la Republica, 1959, Atlas de economia Colombiana, primera entrega: Bogota. Barr,K. W., 19"8, The structural framework of the Caribbean r:gion: 1st Caribbean Geol. Conf., Antigua, British West Indies, 1955, Rept., p. 33-51. Campbell, C. J., 1965, The Santa Marta wrench fault of Colombia and its regional setting: 4th Caribbean Geol. Conf., Trinidad, British West Indies, 1965, Rept., loose-leaf preprint. Carey, S. W., 1958, The tectonic approach to continental drift, in Carey, S. W., Editor, Continental driftA symposium: Hobart, Australia, Geology Dept., Tasmania Univ., 363 p. deSitter, L. U., 1964, Structural geology (2d ed.): New York, McGraw-Hill, 551 p. Grosse, Emil, 1926, El Terciario carbonifero de Antioquia: Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 361 p. Hubach, Enrique, 1957, Contribucion a las unidades estratigraficas de Colombia: Bogota, Servicio Geologico Nacional, Informe no. 1212, 166 p. Kennedy, W. Q., 1946, The Great Glen fault: Geol. Soc. London Quart. lour., v. 52, p. 41-72. Maxwell, J. C., and Wise, D. U., 1958, Wrenchfault tectonicsA discussion: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 69, no. 7, p. 927-928. McKee, E. H., 1968, Age and rate of movement of the northern part of the Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone, California: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 79, no. 4, p. 509-512. Moody, J. D., and Hill, M. J., 1956, W r rench-fault tectonics: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 67, no. 9, p. 1207-1246. Raasveldt, H. C., 1956, Fallas de rumbo en el nordeste de Colombia: Bogota, Revista del Petroleo, v. 7, no. 64, p. 19-26. Radelli, Luigi, 1962, Introduccion al estudio de la petrografia del macizo de Garzon: Bogota, Geologia Colombiana, no. 3, p. 17-46. Rod, Emil, 1956, Strike-slip faults of northern Venezuela: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 40, no. 3, p. 457-476. 1958, Application of principles of wrenchfault tectonics of Moody and Hill to northern South America: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 69, no. 7, p. 933-936. 1959, West end of Serrania del Interior, eastern Venezuela: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 43, no. 4, p. 772-789. Servicio Geologico Nacional e Inventario Minero Nacional, 1967, Geologia del cuadrangulo H-ll, Barrancabermeja [map]: Bogota, scale 1:200,000. Stewart, J. H., 1967, Possible large right-lateral displacement along fault and shear zones in the Death Valley-Las Vegas area, California and Nevada: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 78, no. 2, p. 131-142. Trumpy, Daniel, 1943, Pre-Cretaceous of Colombia: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 54, no. 9, p. 1281-1304.

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T. FEININGERTHE PALESTINA FAULT, COLOMBIA tions of right-lateral strike-slip displacement, Death Valley and Furnace Creek fault zones, California: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 78, no. 8, p. 933-949.

Van der Hammen, Thomas, 1958, Estratigrafia del Terciario y Maestrichtiano contmentales y tectogenesis de los Andes Colombianos: Bogota, Boletin Geologico, v. 6, p. 67-128. Wright, L. A., and Troxell, B. W., 1967, LimitaMANUSCRIPT RECEIVED BY THE SOCIETY AUGUST 15, 1969 PUBLICATION AUTHORIZED BY THE DIRECTORS, INVENTARIO MlNERO NACIONAL COLOMBIA, AND U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AUTHOR'S PRESENT ADDRESS: DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL SCIENCES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20560