The geology of Venezuela It is very varied and has the oldest formations on the planet. High mountains can be found in the west, coasts in the north, plains in the center, jungles and savannas in the south, and huge massifs in the southeast..
Venezuela is located in the north of South America, just above the terrestrial Ecuador. To the west of the territory of Venezuela is the Sierra de Perijá, next to the Maracaibo basin (Lake Maracaibo and lowlands).
Towards the east of this basin is a semi-mountainous region, in the Falcón state, with an extremity that ends in a flat peninsula called Paraguaná. The Venezuelan Andes are located to the west and extend eastward to meet the Cordillera de la Costa, which borders the north of the country..
With the Andean mountain range as the beginning, great plains extend to the south, where the highlands of Guiana break out. It is believed that at this point Venezuela was joining the African continent. To the northeast is a low and swampy area, in the Delta Amacuro state.
During the Lower Paleozoic, the development of a geosyncline began in what is now the lower basin of the Amazon River..
This gave generated that the original massif was separated in two parts: one that went towards the south, the Brazilian shield; and another, facing north, the Guiana coat of arms.
It is from the Guyanese shield that a fifth of Venezuela is born. The rock formations of this shield were under the sea more than 3.5 billion years ago.
At that time there were movements and underwater volcanic eruptions that altered the original rocks and gave rise to the sediments of Roraima. Since then, it is a formation that rises above sea level.
This era begins with the north of South America above sea level, but soon after the sea covered several areas that were eroded.
And it continued to do so in the following 250 million years, covering what are now the states of Táchira, Trujillo and part of Mérida, and what is now Lake Maracaibo. Merida was a kind of island.
This "maritime invasion" reached Perijá, where swamps were formed. This era ended with the Hercynian orogenesis, which violently deformed western Venezuela.
The Mesozoic was the era in which the Venezuelan Guiana Shield was fractured, which was outside the sea. This fracture did not reach the surface. Wide folds with gentle slopes were formed on its flanks.
Then a mountain chain arose that extends from south to north from the current state of Barinas, to Lake Maracaibo. Its depressions eroded during the 100 million years of the Triassic and Jurassic.
In the Cenozoic era, Venezuelan biodiversity is configured. The vast majority of plant and animal species that are known today appear.
It is known that some species such as rudists, belemnites, ammonites, flying and marine reptiles also disappeared.
It is a formation of about 3 thousand meters thick made up of volcanic lavas of coarse and fine grain. It is located on the Yuruari river, near El Callao, in the south of the country.
It is an economically important formation for Venezuela because it shelters veins of gold-bearing quartz and seam.
It is located in the Cicapra stream, which is one of the tributaries of the Yuruari River. It has an estimated thickness of 2000 meters.
It is named after the Caparo river, located in the state of Mérida. It is a sequence of rocks with an approximate thickness of 200 meters.
It is made up of sand and micaceous lithomites, fine and coarse-grained sandstones, calcareous sandstones and fossil shales..
It is located in the Yuruari river near the Pastora town, and is a sedimentary sequence formed in shallow waters with an approximate thickness of 5 thousand meters.
Its rocks are made up of volcanic fragments, grauvacas, schists and tobaceous gaps..
This formation constitutes a discordant sequence located in the Dividual stream, a tributary of the Caballape River.
It is made up of conglomerate sediments, volcanic fragments and tuffs. Its thickness ranges between 5000 and 8000 meters.
It is a Precambrian lithological sequence located in the Andean zone of Venezuela, without fossils. It is composed of sericitic, chloritic and graphylous shales.
It is an almost horizontal sedimentation sequence, located in the Cerro de Roraima and other regions of the Bolívar and Amazonas states..
It is approximately 2,600 meters thick and is made up of shales, quartz feldspathic conglomerates, sandstones, jaspers and ascosics..
It is a stratigraphic sequence located in the current state of Mérida that contains fossils. It is mainly made up of silty slates.
It is another of the formations located in the state of Mérida. It has coarse and fine-grained sandstones, with plant fossils. Also contains limestone and shale.
A formation located near La Grita, Táchira state, which formed between the Upper Triassic and the Lower Jurassic.
Its thickness is estimated at 2400 meters and it was formed with conglomerate and clayey sandstones, shales and red conglomerates..
The geological history of Venezuela created markedly different landscapes in a relatively small area of land..
For example, the following landscapes can be mentioned:
- Canaima Tepuis.
- Dunes of the Médanos de Coro.
- Sedimentary rock cave of El Guácharo.
- The Sierra Nevada.
- Archipelago, islets, keys and islands.
The geological formations that occurred in this South American country have had consequences on the national economy as they have made possible a tourist development and the exploitation of oil.
Although the tourism industry does not represent a very important contribution to Venezuela's GDP (-4.7% in 2016), it does constitute an important potential for attracting foreign capital and promoting national development..
The territory that remained between Guayana in the south east and the Sierra de Perijá and the Andes Mountains in the west, became one of the most important oil deposits in the world.
This oil is currently the main export product of Venezuelans.
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