Basin Development and Tectonic History of the

Llanos Basin, Colombia

M. A. Cooper
F. T. Addison
R. Alvarez
A. B. Hayward
S. Howe
A. J. Pulham
A. Taborda
BP Exploration (Colombia) Ltd.
Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract

T he Llanos basin lies east of the Eastern Cordillera in northeastern Colombia. Basin development
commenced with a Triassic–Jurassic synrift megasequence related to the separation of North and South
America in the Caribbean. Basin development continued in the Cretaceous as a back-arc megasequence behind
the Andean subduction zone. Marine deposition was abruptly terminated during the early Maastrichtian due
to final accretion of the Western Cordillera.
The accretion of the Western Cordillera created the pre-Andean foreland basin megasequence
(Paleocene–early Miocene), which covered the Magdalena Valley, Eastern Cordillera, and Llanos basin. This
megasequence is dominated by fluviodeltaic strata. The overlying Andean foreland basin megasequence
commenced with deformation in the Central Cordillera and Magdalena Valley. The Andean foreland basin
megasequence also includes the Guayabo Formation, which is a classic molasse sequence shed from the devel-
oping mountains of the Eastern Cordillera as deformation moved eastward into the Llanos foothills. The defor-
mation in the Llanos foothills is a combination of inversion of preexisting extensional faults and thin-skinned
thrusting.

Resumen

L a Cuenca de la Llanos se encuentra localizada al oriente de la Cordillera Oriental en el nororiente de

Colombia. El desarrollo de la cuenca comenzó con una megasecuencia de “synrift” Triasica-Jurasica
relacionada con la separación de Norte y Suramerica en el Caribe. El desarrollo de la cuenca continuó durante
el Cretácico con una megasecuencia de “back-arc” en frente de la zona de subducción de los Andes. La sedi-
mentación marina terminó abruptamente durante el Maestrichtiano temprano debido a la acreción final de la
Cordillera Occidental.
La acreción de la Cordillera Occidental dió origen a una megasecuencia pre-andina de antepaís (Paleoceno
a Mioceno Inferior) la cual cubrió el Valle del Magdalena, la Cordillera Oriental y la Cuenca de los Llanos. Esta
megasecuencia está dominada por sedimentos fluvio-deltaicos. La megasecuencia andina de antepaís supraya-
cente comenzó con la deformación en la Cordillera Central y el Valle del Magdalena. La megasecuencia andina
de antepaís también incluye la Formación Guayabo la cual es una clásica molasa proveniente de la erosión de
la naciente Cordillera Oriental a medida que la deformación se movió hacia el este en el piedemonte de los
Llanos. La deformación en el piedemonte de los Llanos es una combinación de inversión de las fallas exten-
sionales pre-existentes y cabalgamientos de escamación delgada.

Cooper, M. A., F. T. Addison, R. Alvarez, A. B. Hayward, S. Howe, A. J. Pulham, and 659

A. Taborda, 1995, Basin development and tectonic history of the Llanos basin,
Colombia, in A. J. Tankard, R. Suárez S., and H. J. Welsink, Petroleum basins of South
America: AAPG Memoir 62, p. 659–665.
660 Cooper et al.

INTRODUCTION
The physiography of Colombia is dominated by the
Andes mountains in the western half of the country and
by the Amazon-Orinoco basin in the east. The
Colombian Andes are split into three ranges—the
Western, Central, and Eastern Cordilleras—which to the
south merge into a single range in Ecuador. To the east of
the Eastern Cordillera is Los Llanos, an elevated
savannah that is part of the catchment area for the Rio
Orinoco (Figure 1). Major work that has been done on
the stratigraphy, tectonics, and regional tectonic setting
of Colombia include Hettner (1892), Hubach (1957),
Bürgl (1961), Etayo-Serna (1979), Fabre (1983), McCourt
et al. (1984), Pilger (1984), Aspden and McCourt (1986),
Ben Avraham and Nur (1987), Megard (1987), Pardo-
Casas and Molnar (1987), Burke (1988), Butler and
Schamel (1988), and Montgomery (1992).
The major tectonic events that have influenced the
development of the Llanos basin are all closely tied to the
development of the active margin of western South
America. The regional structural evolution is divisible
into eight major events:

1. Triassic–Early Cretaceous—Rift basins developed

as a result of the separation of North and South
America as the Caribbean opened (~235–130 Ma);
this is the synrift megasequence.
2. Barremian–Maastrichtian—A prolonged period of
episodic extension occurred on a series of exten-
sional faults (e.g., the Guaicáramo fault system)
along with passive regional subsidence in a back-
arc basin setting (~125–74 Ma); this is the back-arc
megasequence.
3. Maastrichtian–early Paleocene—The final event in
the accretion of the Western Cordillera caused
uplift and erosion of the Central Cordillera (~74–65
Ma); this is the onset of the pre-Andean foreland
basin megasequence.
4. middle Eocene:—An early compressional deforma-
tion event affected the Magdalena Valley and the
western margin of the Eastern Cordillera (~49–42
Ma) due to an increase in convergence rates of the
Nazca and South American plates (Pardo-Casas
and Molnar, 1987; Daly, 1989).
5. late Eocene–late Oligocene—A prolonged period of
subsidence and localized normal faulting occurred
in response to flexure of the lithosphere in the
foreland basin created by the deformation load of
the Western and Central Cordilleras (~39–29 Ma).
6. late Oligocene–early Miocene—Deformation in the
Cauca and Magdalena valleys caused continued
subsidence in the Llanos basin (~29–16.5 Ma).
7. middle Miocene—A phase of rapid subsidence
occurred as deformation, uplift, and erosion
commenced in the Eastern Cordillera and estab-
lished the foreland basin depocenter in the Llanos
foothills (~16.5–10.5 Ma); this is the Andean
foreland basin megasequence.
8. late Miocene–Recent—The latest phase of compres-
sion and inversion associated with the formation of
Figure 1—Map of major tectonic provinces and sutures in
Colombia.
the frontal fold and thrust belt of the Eastern
Cordillera (10.5 Ma–present day).
The aim of this paper is to present a brief review of the
basin development, chronostratigraphy, and structural
style of the Llanos basin and Llanos foothills to provide a
regional context for the recently discovered Cusiana
giant field.
REGIONAL STRATIGRAPHIC
FRAMEWORK AND BASIN EVOLUTION
The basin stratigraphic model has been developed on
the basis of published data and the log, core, seismic, and
outcrop data acquired by BP during regional studies of
the Llanos basin and exploration of the Llanos foothills.
The chronostratigraphic summary of the Llanos basin
(Figure 2) is based on a sequence stratigraphic scheme
originally developed for the Cusiana field and adjacent
areas of the foreland. This stratigraphic scheme was
subsequently extended throughout the Llanos basin by
careful correlation of the well logs and using available
biostratigraphic data. Comparison of the sequence
stratigraphy with the conventional industry lithostrati-
graphic scheme for the Llanos basin is illustrated in
Figure 3.
The sedimentary rocks in the Llanos foothills and
Llanos basin were deposited in a basin that evolved from
a back-arc basin in the Late Cretaceous to a foreland
basin in the early Tertiary and whose depocenter moved
 Basin Development and Tectonic History of the Llanos Basin, Colombia 661

Figure 2—Chronostratigraphic summary diagram for the Llanos basin and foothills based on well and outcrop data. The sea
level curve of Haq et al. (1987) has been adjusted to the BP time scale.

progressively eastward throughout the Tertiary. The
resulting stratigraphy is a highly punctuated succession
of Upper Cretaceous–lower Tertiary strata, representing
periodic marginal deposition in major contemporaneous
depocenters to the west and north. The stratigraphic
record becomes more complete westward in the Eastern
Cordillera and the Magdalena Valley, although Tertiary
rocks are only sparsely preserved in the Eastern
Cordillera because of late Miocene and Pliocene uplift
and erosion. The following basin evolution model has
been developed on the basis of available published infor-
mation and by integrating recent BP well, seismic, and
outcrop data.
Rocks older than the Late Cretaceous include a succes-
sion of Paleozoic metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
that have only been penetrated in a few wells in the
Llanos. Triassic–Lower Cretaceous rocks are absent in
the area except for possible small, localized synrift
sequences. Upper Cretaceous strata thus generally rest
directly on Paleozoic basement.
Upper Cretaceous deposition of the back-arc megase-
quence was initiated in Cenomanian time (98–91 Ma)
during a regional transgression that drowned the
exposed Paleozoic rocks of the Llanos region and
resulted in deposition of a series of basal, shallow marine
and shoreline Cretaceous sandstones, which progres-
sively onlapped farther eastward onto the Guyana shield
(Figure 2). These sandstones are depositional sequence
K50 (Une Formation equivalent) (Hubach, 1931).
In the Turonian–early Coniacian (91–88 Ma), global
sea level rise (Haq et al., 1987), combined with anoxic
upwelling conditions, resulted in deposition of a succes-
sion of marine mudstones, cherts, and phosphates
(Figure 2). These sediments formed an excellent marine
source rock (sequence K60, Gacheta Formation) (Miller,
1979) in the Llanos area. This sequence is the equivalent
of prolific source rocks such as the Villeta Shale
Formation in the Upper Magdalena Valley (Beltrán and
Gallo, 1968) and the La Luna Formation of the Middle
Magdalena Valley and western Venezuela.
Sequence K60 deposition was terminated by a fall in
relative sea level in the Coniacian–early Santonian (88–85
Ma). The Llanos foothills area was on the eastern margin
of the basinal system. Sequences K70 and K80 (which
equate approximately with the Guadalupe; Hettner,
1892) were deposited at this time and represent two
major cycles of eastward shoreline progradation, aggra-
dation, and retrogradation. They are dominated by high-
662 Cooper et al.

TYPE LOG SIGNATURE sequence K80 is a shale unit that has been mistakenly
PROPOSED CONVENTIONAL
FORMATION
identified as the Maastrichtian–Paleocene Guaduas
AGE SEQUENCES GAMMA RESISTIVITY
RAY NAMES Formation (Figure 3) (Sarmiento, 1992) in some of the
0m FARALLONES
earlier wells in the Llanos foothills (e.g., Medina-1).
Recently acquired data by BP has conclusively dated
these youngest Cretaceous rocks in the foothills as
Campanian.
PLIOCENE
500 m The final accretion event in the Western Cordillera

UPPER
commenced at the end of the Cretaceous. A relative drop
in sea level, probably linked to the onset of compression
to the west, resulted in a fundamental change in the
T90 nonmarine deposition of the pre-Andean foreland basin

GUAYABO
1000 m

megasequence. Sequence T10 is not present in the Llanos

basin and foothills, being represented by a hiatus of
LATE

about 20 m.y. that spans the Cretaceous–Tertiary

LOWER
boundary.
1500 m
Renewed deposition commenced about 60 Ma in the
late Paleocene in response to a far-reaching transgres-
sion. The Barco Formation (Notestein et al., 1944) forms
the basal transgressive part of sequence T20, which was
2000 m
T80 laid down on a major unconformity surface. It mainly
MIDDLE
MIOCENE

comprises sandstone-rich estuarine deposits. Marine

LEON

influence is strong throughout the Barco Formation in

the Cusiana field area in the Llanos foothills, but at the
2500 m top of the formation there is a relatively abrupt upward
transition into more heterolithic coastal plain and alluvial
plain deposits. T20 sandstone deposition ended as the
T70 C1
late Paleocene transgression weakened and a relative
EARLY

3000 m highstand in sea level was established (~59 Ma). During

C2
CARBONERA

the subsequent regression, the regional shoreline

C3 gradually shifted westward. The sediments laid down
T60 C4
during this sea level highstand were muddy lower
C5 coastal plain deposits (Los Cuervos Formation)
T50 3500 m
(Notestein et al., 1944). In the Llanos, a hiatus of up to
C6 20 m.y. separates sequences T20 and T30 and appears to
OLIGOCENE C7 correlate with a similar unconformity in the Middle
T40 Magdalena Valley.
4000 m
C8 Deposition in the area was renewed in the
LATE
EOCENE T30 MIRADOR middle–late Eocene (~39 Ma). Deposition of sequence
LOS CUERVOS
PALEOCENE
T20 BARCO
T30 (Mirador Formation) (Notestein et al., 1944) began in
GUADUAS response to a far-reaching transgression that came out of
CAMPANIAN K80 4500 m
U. GUADALUPE the foreland basins to the west and north. Initial T30
L. CRETACEOUS

GUADALUPE SHALE
SANTONIAN K70
CONIACIAN-
TURONIAN K60 5000 m
CENOMANIAN-
ALBIAN
K50
Figure 3—Comparison of stratigraphic schemes for the
Llanos foothills and Llanos basin. The symbols in the
sequences column are the same as in Figure 5. The
symbols in the stylized resistivity log column indicate the
depositional environments and are the same as in Figure 2.
energy, quartz-rich shoreface sandstones supplied from
the Guyana shield to the west and exhibit a widespread
distribution across the Llanos basin and foothills. The
Campanian K80 sandstones form the oldest proven
commercial reservoir unit in the foothills. At the top of
L. GUADALUPE
deposition included marine-influenced, sand-rich, valley
fill deposits that passed upward into muddier coastal
GACHETA plain sediments. Continued transgression eventually
SHALES
submerged this middle Mirador alluvial plain and estab-
lished a shallow marine shelf across the Cusiana area.
UNE
Offshore muds and sandy bioturbated shoreface progra-
dational cycles punctuated by sand-rich fluvial and
estuarine valley fill deposits comprised latest Eocene
deposition, forming the upper part of the Mirador
Formation. All of the coarser grained sandstones in the
Mirador Formation in the Llanos foothills are extremely
mature quartz arenites.
After sequence T30 deposition, four major cycles of
marine-influenced lower coastal plain deposition
occurred in the Llanos basin and foothills (sequences
T40–T70). These sequences are ~34–16.5 Ma and are
traditionally termed the Carbonera Formation (Notestein
et al., 1944). These cycles are bounded by widespread
maximum flooding surfaces. Each cycle consists of a
 Basin Development and Tectonic History of the Llanos Basin, Colombia 663

mud-dominated highstand systems tract followed by a N

ºW 6º
thin, forced retrogradational systems tract, and ending 72
with a sand-prone transgressive systems tract that culmi- Tamara-1
nates with the maximum flooding surface. The
sequences are thus not true sequences in the sense of PAZ DE
Mitchum et al. (1977), but are genetic stratigraphic units ARIPORO

YOPAL FAUL T SYS TEM

in the sense of Galloway (1989). Type 1 sequence bound-
aries (Mitchum et al., 1977) have not yet been recognized.
The units can be correlated throughout the Llanos basin N
6º
and show a gradual increase in the sand percentage as
Pauto-2
the Guyana shield provenance area is approached. RI O P A UTO
In the middle Miocene, the global rise in sea level

M
coincided with the first significant deformation and º

SYSTE
72 'W
uplift in the Eastern Cordillera and hence with a signifi- 30
cant loading event that tectonically enhanced the relative
rise in sea level and the highstand systems tract that

NUNCHI A SYNC LINE

resulted (T80 mudstone, Leon Formation) (Notestein et

F A ULT
RI
O T OCARIA
al., 1944). Evidence for partial emergence of the Eastern
Cordillera is that sequence T80 becomes more sand
prone in the western part of the foothills, suggesting that 72
ºW
there was a supply of coarse clastics derived from the
west.
The final depositional episode in the Llanos was the
El Morro-1

YOPAL
N

GUAICARAMO
deposition of about 3000 m of coarse continental clastics
in sequence T90 (Guayabo Formation) (Hubach, 1957)
from ~10 to 2 Ma ago. This last phase of deposition

YOPAL FAULT
N
5º
marks uplift of the Eastern Cordillera immediately west
of the foothills and migration of the foreland basin axis to
the current location of the Eastern Cordillera foothills
(Figure 2). Deposition of this molasse unit caused rapid Cupiagua-1

late stage burial of the Upper Cretaceous–lower Tertiary

Cusiana-2A
stratigraphic section in the foothills and Llanos basin.
LINE OF SECTION

ºW Cusiana-4
73 RIO CUSIANA
Leticia-1
STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION AND STYLE CUSIA NA AN TICLINE

The boundary between the Eastern Cordillera and CHITAM CUSIANA F A LT

RIO E NA
U
the Llanos foothills is the Guaicaramo fault system
(Figure 4). The foothills are about 15–20 km wide and are
separated from the foreland to the north and south of the 72
º
'W
area by the inverted Cusiana-Yopal fault system. In the 30
N
central part, the inversion faults lie beneath the thin- 5º

skinned Yopal fault system (Figure 4), which detaches in

the lower part of sequence T40. The earliest documented
0 5 10 15 20 km
extension on the Cusiana-Yopal fault system occurred in
the Late Cretaceous during deposition of sequence K80
LIN E

(upper Guadalupe Formation). This is based on the Medina-1

IO ANTIC

differences in thickness of K80 measured in the Cusiana GUAYABO

field wells and wells in the immediate foreland (e.g., LEON
GU A V

Leticia-1). It is likely, however, that the fault trend had an

earlier extensional history during Early Cretaceous CARBONERA
rifting and back-arc subsidence, given the dramatic thick- MIRADOR +
ening of the Lower Cretaceous strata from the foreland CRETACEOUS
toward the Eastern Cordillera (Hebrard, 1985; Ulloa and ANTICLINE
Rodriguez, 1981). Extension continued episodically from SYNCLINE
Late Cretaceous to middle Miocene time (sequence T80, THRUST FAULT
Leon Formation) and was punctuated by hiatuses and
tectonic quiescence. The extensional movements on the
Cusiana fault system can be seen on seismic data and are Figure 4—Surface geologic map of the Llanos foothills
also demonstrable from the thickness of the sequences in showing major structures and the location of the cross
the foreland wells as compared to wells within the section and wells referred to in the text.
664 Cooper et al.
NW
Guaicaramo
Fault System
Figure 5—Cross section through the Cusiana field in the Llanos foothills. See the “proposed sequences” column in Figure 3
for the key to the stratigraphic units.
hanging wall of the fault. This phase of extension on the
Cusiana fault system accommodates the flexure of the
lithosphere in response to the load imposed by the
regional compressional deformation.
As deformation in the Eastern Cordillera migrated
eastward, the foothills became involved in the frontal
fold and thrust belt (R. Herrera, 1971, personal commu-
nication; Colletta et al., 1990). Relatively simple
compression along a WNW-ESE trending azimuth
caused inversion along the Cusiana-Yopal fault system
(Figure 5).
The thin-skinned Yopal fault, which detaches within
sequence T40, overrides the Cusiana fault to the north
and buries the branch line with the latter fault. To the
west of these frontal inversion structures is a system of
major regional synclines. The western limbs of the
synclines are elevated by a series of structures that
involve the Upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary sedi-
mentary sequences. These structures can be modeled as a
series of basement involved or thin-skinned (Gacheta
Shale, K60 detachment) duplex horses (Figures 4, 5),
largely based on the evidence of fault repetition of the
Mirador in the El Morro-1 well.
The recent paper by Dengo and Covey (1993) contains
a cross section through the Unete-1 well that implies a
deeper detachment for the Yopal fault than is evident
from our studies of the foothills (Figure 5), which are
based on an extensive seismic and well database. The
other difference in the work by Dengo and Covey (1993)
is the absence of inversion on the basement-involved
Cusiana-Yopal fault system.
SE
Cusiana-4 Cusiana-2A Leticia-1
Cusiana
Yopal Fault Fault
0 5 10 Km
CONCLUSIONS
The tectonic history of the region records an initial
phase of localized Triassic–Jurassic rifting followed by an
Early Cretaceous back-arc basin that became less active
by the middle Cretaceous. In the Late Cretaceous, the
collision of the Western Cordillera initiated the foreland
basin megasequence that has dominated to the present
day.
The tectonic evolution strongly influenced strati-
graphic development of the basin. The back-arc mega-
sequence is characterized by marine strata that are more
basinal to the west. The collision event in the Late Creta-
ceous reestablished continental and coastal plain envi-
ronments throughout the basin. The pre-Andean
foreland basin megasequence shows strongly cyclical
sediment patterns with the alternation of continental,
coastal plain, and marginal marine environments. This is
interpreted to be the result of the highly peneplained
Guyana shield hinterland, which had a low paleoslope
gradient and was thus susceptible to rapid flooding and
regression. This in turn allowed the rapid migration of
facies belts within the systems tracts. The main Andean
deformation phase caused inversion of preexisting exten-
sional faults and thin-skinned thrust structures.
Acknowledgments We wish to thank BP Exploration
(Colombia) Ltd. for permission to publish this work, Michel
Coudèyre of Total for the type log signatures used, and Andres
Tovar for drafting the figures.
 Basin Development and Tectonic History of the Llanos Basin, Colombia
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K-13: Tauramena, Ingeominas, Bogotá, Boletín Geológico,
no. 24-2, p. 3–30.
Authors’ Mailing Addresses
M. A. Cooper
PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd.
150 9th Ave S.W.
P.O. Box 2850
Calgary, Alberta T2P 2S5
Canada
F. T. Addison
R. Alvarez
A. B. Hayward
S. Howe
A. J. Pulham
A. Taborda
BP Exploration (Colombia) Ltd.
Carrera 9A, 99-02, Bogotá
Colombia