Basement characteristics in the lower magdalena valley and the sinú and san jacinto fold belts: evidence of a late cretaceous magmatic arc at the south of the colombian caribbean

Abstract

Abstract The onset of subduction in the Caribbean Plate under the South American Plate allowed the development of an Active Continental Margin; the age of onset, the mechanism and the plates involved are a discussion topic, especially at the Colombian South Caribbean Margin, due to the lack of geological information related to the basement. This article integrates petrographic, geochemical analyses and U/Pb dating of basement samples, in addition to the inclusion of published magnetic anomalies maps from the North of Colombia, in order to generate a compositional distribution map of the basement and determine the presence of a magmatic arc under the sediments of the Lower Magdalena Valley (LMV), which supports the existence of a Late Cretaceous active continental margin represented by a magmatic arc, called Magmatic Arc of Magangué. Dating of the arc yield a Late Cretaceous Age (84-74 Myr), and petrographic and geochemical evidence suggests it is comprised of igneous bodies of felsic to intermediate composition, which intrude the LMV continental crust, originated in a subduction setting. The origin of the LMV continental crust seems to be related to the continent-continent collision (consolidation of Pangaea) during the Permian (300 Ma ago), and to the post-Alleganian extension event of Triassic age (232 Ma ago).

Keywords

• Magmatic Arc
• U-Pb geochronology
• subduction
• Caribbean
• South America