The metamorphic "basement" of Ecuador

TOMAS FEININGER Departement de Geologie, Universite Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada GI K 7 P4

laterally into low-grade schists on the eastern Andean
slope, east of Cuenca.

Modern mapping and topical studies have

ABSTRACT combined to show that regional metamorphic rocks in
Ecuador belong to several distinct units that range
widely in age, composition, and metamor-phic history.
The metamorphic rocks of Ecuador, once thought
The purpose of the present report is to summarize
to constitute a uniform and ancient basement, belong to
several distinct units of widely differing ages,
compositions, and metamorphic histories. The largest
area of metamorphic rocks constitutes an unbroken belt
on the eastern Andean slope from the Colombian to the
Peruvian border. The bulk of_ the rocks in this belt are
of Cretaceous age, and were metamorphosed in the
greenschist facies under a barrovian facies series. Rocks
in the extreme north, and those south of lat. 315'S are
different, and may be of Paleozoic age. A smaller terrain,
on the western Andean slope in southwestern Ecuador, is
yet more varied. It includes four metamorphic terrains:
the polymetamorphic Piedras Group of Precambrian age;
the low-pressure Tahuin Group of Paleozoic age; the
high-pressure Raspas Formation of Cretace-ous age; and
a low-pressure terrain of uncertain age north of the La
Palma fault. Several isolated outcrops of metamorphic
rocks in Ecuador are of uncertain significance.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Large areas of regionally metamorphosed rocks in

Ecuador crop out in: ( 1) an unbroken belt, 645 km long
and from 15 to 65 km wide, on the eastern Andean slope
between the borders of Colombia and Peru and (2) a
terrain about 2,500 km 2 in area on the western Andean
slope to the south, in El Oro Province (Fig. 1).
Traditionally, and until as recently as 1969
(Servicio Nacional de Geologia y Mineria), the
metamorphic rocks of the country were treated as a more
or less uniform and ancient basement, entirely of
Paleozoic and Precambrian age (Sauer, 1965, 1971). An
early sug-gestion by Liddle (Liddle and Palmer, 1941)
that this interpretation was too simple, and that some
metamorphic rocks on the eastern Andean slope are of
Cretaceous age, was far ahead of its time and it was
largely ignored. More recent studies in Loja and El Oro
Prov-inces in southern Ecuador, based chiefly on
photogeology, led Kennerley ( 1973) to distinguish the
metamorphic rocks of the east-ern Andean slope
("Zamora Series," supposedly of Paleozoic age), from
those on the western Andean slope ("Tahuin Series," sup-
posedly of Cretaceous age). Subsequent regional
geologic mapping by Feininger (1979, l 980a) and K-Ar
age determinations showed the "Tahuin Series" to be
composed of no less than four metamor-phic belts of
unlike characteristics and ages. Nearly simultaneously,
Bristow ( 1973) revived Liddle's suggestion, and was
able to trace fossiliferous rocks of Late Cretaceous age
 south. The least-known rocks are at the extreme north
and south ends of the belt on the eastern Andean slope.
These areas are particularly inaccessible and are
characterized by great local relief and dense forest. The
current knowledge of Ecuadorian metamorphic rocks
remainder of the eastern belt has been studied in detail
and to depict their distribution on a small-scale map
only along the three roads that cross it, near Quito,
(Fig. 1). The characteristics of five of the principal
Ambato, and Cuenca. The "Zamora Series" is crossed by
metamorphic terrains of Ecuador are sum-marized in
a road east from the city of Loja in the south.
Table I.

Piedras Group and Other Precambrian Rocks

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

The Piedras Group crops out in El Oro Province, on

The present report is at best a preliminary
the west-ern Andean slope in southern Ecuador. It
compilation. I have resorted to many sources of
constitutes an east-striking belt as much as 12 km wide,
information of a wide range of detail and quality. Aside
from the Peruvian border in the west, at least to the town
from the cited sources, I have had access to the dozens of
of Portovelo, 65 km to the east (Feininger, 1978; Bristow
reconnaissance geologic maps at 1: 100,000 and 1:50,000
and Hoffsetetter, 1977). The Piedras Group constitutes
published since 1970 by the Direcci6n General de
the basement under the Paleozoic Tahuin Group to the
Geologia y Minas, Quito (formerly the Servicio Nacional
south (Feininger, 1980~, and is separated from unnamed
de Geologia y Mineria); unpublished reports of
metamorphic rocks to the north by the regional LaPalma
PREDESUR (an autonomous Ecuadorian development
fault. The Piedras Group is composed dominantly of
agency active in the southern part of the country);
such basic rocks as greenschist and amphibolite, with
unpublished theses at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional,
minor intercalations of quartzite and quartz-sericite
Quito; and personal observations made throughout much
schist. Amphibole from amphibolite at Por-tovelo has
of Ecua-dor from 1970 to 1980.
given a Late Precambrian (743 14 m.y.) K-Ar age
(Kennerley, 1980). Intrusive igneous rocks are absent.
The Piedras Group is polymetamorphic. High-grade
THE MET AM ORPHIC ROCKS OF ECUADOR
rocks have a strong retro-grade overprint, and
amphibolite is characterized by feathery green
Perhaps the best-known metamorphic rocks in hornblende and wholly saussuritized plagioclase. Criteria
Ecuador are those on the western Andean slope in the to

Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 93, p. 87-92, l fig., I table, January 1982.

87

81
80 79
78 77
76
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81 80

CUENCA
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2
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3
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 METAMORPHIC TERRAIN OF EL ORO
PROVINCE

79 78 7 7 76

Figure I. Metamorphic map of Ecuador. Most of the

geologic contacts are modified from Servicio Nacional de
Geologia y Mineria (1969) and from maps pub-lished
since 1970 by the Direccion General de Geologia y
Minas, Quito. Geologic contacts in El Oro Province are
taken from Feininger (1978) and from more recent
unpublished mapping by the author. Note that the
Government of Ecuador does not recognize the border
with Peru shown here.

TABLE I. SUMMARIZED CHARACTERISTICS OF FIVE OF THE PRINCIPAL METAMORPHIC TERRAINS OF ECUADOR

Age Precambrian
Age of metamorphism Precambrian +
Devonian(?)
K-Ar dates 743 14 m.y.

Facies series ??

Facies Greenschist and

amphibolite
Protoliths Chiefly basic rocks,
minor pelites and
q uartzose rocks
Rock types unique to Polymetamorphic
each terrain amphibolite
Characteristic
minerals
Early Paleozoic
Probably Devonian

210 8 m.y.

Low-pressure
Nonmetamorphic to
top of amphibolite
Pelites and
psammites

Andalusite schist

Andalusite, silli-
manite, biotite

Cretaceous
Maastrichtian to early Tertiary
53.6 1.6 to 60.6 2.3 m.y.
Barrovian
Nonmetamorphic to greenschist
Pelites, minor basic vol-canic rocks, quartzose rocks, and limestones
Chloritoid schist
Grossular-rich alman-dine, kyanite, chlori-toid, paragonite
decipher the facies series of any of the metamorphic
episodes to have affected the Piedras Group are
contradictory. The story is blurred by the complex
metamorphic history of the rocks. On th(: one hand, the
absence of garnet in amphibolite (although perhaps
controlled by bulk composition) suggests a low-pressure
facies series. On the other hand, the sporadic presence of
blue-viole: crossitic amp hi bole (Na20 = 6.1 %) in
some samples of greenschist is compatible with a
barrovian or even a higher pressure facie:; sen es.
Precambrian granulite-facies rocks of the Guayana
shield con-stitute the basement of Ecuador east of the
Andes, but crop out nowhere in the country. The rocks
have been encountered in several deep ( >2,750 m) oil
wells.
Paleozoic Rocks
The Tahuin Group (Bristow and Hoffstetter, 1977)
of Paleo-zoic age constitutes an extensive east-striking
terrain at least 80 km long, and as much as 25 km wide
in El Oro Province, south of the Piedras Group. The
Tahuin Group lies with structural conformity on
amphibolite of the Piedras Group in the north, and is
overlain unconformably by sedimentary, volcani.clastic,
and volcanic rocks of the Alamor Group of Cretaceous
ag(: in the south. Rocks in the Tahuin Group are entirely
pelitic and psammitic; no volcanic rocks are known.
Gneissic intrusive igneous rocks that range from alaskite
to quartz diorite occur sporadically as small stocks, each
2 are unlike any found on the eastern Andean slope to the
mostly less than 25 km in area. The Tahuin Group is in
part Devo-nian, and was metamorphosed prior to
Carboniferous time. Weakly metamorphosed quartzite on
strike with the Tahuin Group, 125 km to the southwest at
Cerro Amotape, Peru, has yielded a Devonian
brachiopod fauna. The rocks at Cerro Amotape are in
turn overlain unconformably by richly fossiliferous
sedimentary rocks of Carbon-iferous age (Martinez,
1970). A 210 8 m.y. K-Ar age (Feiningcr and
Silberman, in press) on biotite from gneiss in the Tahuin
Group is interpreted to be an uplift age.
Metamorphic grade of the Tahuin Group increases
northward in slightly irregular fashion. Rocks in the
extreme south are non-metamorphic, and some rocks in
the north are above the second sillimanite isograd. In all,
I have recognized six isograds in western El Oro
Province (Feininger, 1978). In order of increasing grade,
they are chlorite, biotit1~, andalusite, fibrolite, prismatic
sillimanite (with muscovite), and prismatic stillimanite +
orthoclase (without muscovite). The boundary that
separates the greenschist and amphibolite facies falls
between the andalusite and fibrolite iso-grads. These two
isograds generally are separated by I km or less in the
field. Based on the early appearance of biotite and of
plagioclase more calcic than albite, the abundance of
andalusite in middle-grade rocks, the absence of kyanite,
and the restriction of garnet to the highest grade rocks,
the Tahuin Group is interpreted to have been
metamorphosed under a low-pressure facies series.
Metamorphic roc:ks on the eastern Andean slope
south of lat. 3 I 5'S (the "Zamora Series" of Kennerley,
1973) are mostly in the amphibolite facies and resemble
rocks of the Tahuin Group. Trouw ( 1976) has suggested
that the two may be correlative. The rocks in the east,
however, are virtually unstudied. Minerals reported
include abundant biotite, andalusite, cordierite, garnet,
and a single occurrence of :;taurolit1!, one of only two
known in Ecuador.
Large plutons of gneissic quartz diorite and biotite-
rich schists exposed in the Rio Chingual along the
Colombian border may be of Paleozoic age. The rocks
south. Perhaps they are correlative with the Paleozoic
metamorphic rocks that constitute the bulk of the Cen-
tral Andean Cordillera in Colombia (Feininger, 1980b).
Raspas Formation
The Raspas Formation crops out over a distance of
at least 21 km (the eastern end of the formation is still
unmapped) as an east-striking belt, I to 4 km wide, in
fault contact with the Piedras Group on the south, and
bordered by the La Palma fault on the
METAMORPHIC "BASEMENT" OF ECUADOR

north. The western end of the formation is encased in partly serpen-tinized harzburgite. The Raspas Formation is
composed of feldspar-free basic and pelitic rocks, all metamorphosed in a high-pressure ("blueschist") facies series
that I have described in consid-erable detail elsewhere (Feininger, I 980a). Prograde rocks include pelitic schist and
eclogite amphibolite, both containing kyanite, and eclogite. Retrograde rocks, chiefly glaucophane schist and green-
schist, dominate the formation in the east. Phengite from pelitic schist has given an Early Cretaceous K-Ar age of 132
5 m.y. This has been interpreted as an uplift age related to the abandonment of an underlying subduction zone
(Feininger, l 980a).

Metamorphic Rocks North of the La Palma Fault

A little-studied terrain of metamorphic rocks crops out in a relatively inaccessible part of northern El Oro
Province. These rocks are separated from the Piedras Group or the Raspas Forma-tion by the La Palma fault in the
south, and terminate against another major east-striking fault that follows the Rio Jubones, 30 km to the north. The
terrain is from 15 to 30 km wide. Initially, the rocks were thought to be part of the Tahuin Group (Feininger, 1978),
but more recent mapping has led to the conclusion that the terrain is substantially different. The rocks are chiefly
pelitic and psammitic, although unlike the Tahuin Group, basic metavolcanic rocks are widespread. Accessory pyrite
is ubiquitous. Long east-striking zones of protomylonite, mylonite, and phyllonite are con-spicuous, and cataclasis is
developed over large areas. The age of the rocks is unknown. A single replicate K-Ar date on amphibole from
amphibolite at Arenillas gave a Late Cretaceous age, 74.4 I. I m.y. (Feininger and Silberman, in press). The
significance of this date remains uncertain. High-grade rocks in this terrain are characterized by strong development
of cordierite, now pinitized in most samples. The abundance of both cordierite and andalusite, coupled with the
universal absence of garnet and kyanite, show that the rocks belong to a low-pressure facies series. Metamorphic
grade ranges from low greenschist to middle amphibolite facies, although the distribution of isograds remains to be
mapped out. A strong retrograde overprint is common, and may be related to the perva-sive cataclasis.

Metamorphic Rocks on the Eastern Andean Slope

North of lat. 3 IS'S

The most rugged terrain, with the most difficult accessibility in Ecuador, the eastern Andean slope, is underlain
by a belt of meta-morphic rocks that north of lat. 3 I 5'S share distinctive mineral-ogic and petrologic properties
unlike those of metamorphic rocks elsewhere in the country. This part of the eastern belt is 450 km long, and although
morphologically it appears to be a simple southward extension of the dominantly Paleozoic metamorphic rocks of the
Central Andean Cordillera in Colombia, the rocks in Ecuador are quite unlike those to the north (Feininger, 1980b).
The change takes place close to the Colombian border. Feininger ( 1975) believed the rocks in Ecuador to be of
Cretaceous age, and to have been metamorphosed in Maastrichtian and Early Tertiary time. This view was later
reinforced by Paleocene K-Ar ages obtained from micas of thoroughly recrystallized schists from a half dozen
localities (Herbert, 1977; Feininger and Silberman, in press). Rocks in the belt are pelitic mica schist and phylilt'e,
with minor chlorite-rich metavolcanic(?) rocks, quartzite, and marble. Highly alu-minous (AhOJ = 32%) quartz +
paragonite + chloritoid kyanite

schist is characteristic. Bodies of orthogneiss (Trouw, 1976), locally with retrograded relics of sillimanite and
cordierite(?), may be remobilized older basement rocks. Intrusive igneous rocks are scarce. The entire belt is in the
greenschist facies. Several petrographic features point to the schists having been meta-morphosed under an
intermediate-pressure, barrovian facies series. Outstanding are the presence of kyanite, the general abundance of
garnet and chloritoid, the persistence of albite rather than a more calcic plagioclase, and the absence of biotite in the
lower-grade rocks.

Other outcrops of Metamorphic Rocks

The geologic map of Ecuador (Servicio Nacional de Geologia y Mineria, 1969) shows several isolated outcrops
of metamorphic rocks. Most are small, and the nature of many is uncertain. Although only those outcrops reliably
documented are shown on the accompanying map (Fig. I), I shall discuss each one briefly, from north to south.

Maldonado. A small body, about 5 km wide, of "semimeta-morphic" (very low grade) rocks is shown on the
western Andean slope at the Colombian border (lat. 052'N; long. 7803'W), 35 km west of Tulcan and near the town
of Maldonado. No confirmation of these rocks is known to me.
 Ibarra. Graphitic quartz-sericite schist and fine-grained green-schist occur as isolated outcrops that protrude
through upper Ter-tiary volcaniclastic sediments in the Rio Chota valley (lat. 027'N; long. 7802'W), 15 km
northeast of Ibarra. Trouw ( 1976) suggested that these rocks are correlative with Cretaceous metamorphic rocks on
the eastern Andean slope, exposed less than 20 km to the southeast. The strike of foliation is dissimilar in the two
terrains, however.

Rio Guayllabamba. "Semimetamorphic" and metamorphic rocks are shown in the canyon of the Rio
Guayllabamba at two sites: one, 20 km northeast of Quito (lat. 000'; long. 7824'W); the other, 35 km north of Quito
(lat. 008'N; long. 7828'W). To my knowledge, no metamorphic rocks are exposed at the first site. Rocks at the
second site are phyllites of uncertain affinity.
Pallatanga. A northeast-striking body of "semimetamorphic" rocks occurs adjacent to flysch of Paleocene-
Cretaceous age on the western Andean slope at Pallatanga (lat. I 0 59'S; long. 78 57'W), 50 km southwest of
Riobamba. Trouw ( 1976) reported no discernable difference between the purportedly very low grade rocks and the
flysch, and probably neither is metamorphic.
Punta Piedra and Cerros de Masvale. A series of small, low-lying outcrops of quartz-sericite schist and
greenstone are found in the estuary of the Rio Guy as (lat. 2 25'S; long. 79 53'W), 25 km south of Guayaquil.
Although cited by Sauer ( 1965) as outcrops of basement rocks thought to underlie the entire Ecuadorian coastal plain,
gravity studies (Feininger, 1977) show this to be unlikely. Feininger and Bristow ( 1980) interpret the outcrops as
tectonic blocks transported along a currently inactive transform fault, the Romera! fault.

New mapping by the Direcci6n General de Geologia y Minas in the Cerros de Masvale (lat. 2 25'S; long. 79
38'W), on the coastal plain 25 km east of Punta Piedra, has revealed that the "metamorphic rocks" there are
nonmetamorphic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age.

Caiiar-La Troncal. A small body of metamorphic rocks on the western Andean slope (lat. 2 25'S; long. 79 l
2'W), 75 km east of Punta Piedra, is crossed on the road that connects Caiiar and La
92 T. FEININGER
Bristow, C. R., and Hoffstetter, Robert,
1977, Lexique stratigraphique
Troncal. The rocks have not been international, Equateur: Paris, Centre
studi1~d in detail. Trouw (1976} National de Recherche Scienti-
showed that in part they were
metamorphosed within the aureole of
a stock of adamellite.
Western Andean slope north of
the Rio Jubones. A belt of
metamorphic rocks from 2 to 20 km
wide is shown to reach northward 75 km
from the Rio Jubones on the western
Andean slope. The extent of this belt is
exaggerated enormously. Metamor.. phic
rocks are restricted to small outcrops
such as those at Chaucha (lat. 2 58'S;
long. 79 32'W) and San Pablo de
Cebadas (lat. 302'S; long. 7928'W).
The rocks are low-grade quartz-sericite
and chJo .. rite schists. Their
significance in this highly tectonized
terrain remains unknown.

Alam or Group. On I: I 00,000-

scale geologic maps published by the
Direcci6n General de Geologia y Minas,
large areas of the Alamor Group of
Cretaceous age immediately south of the
Tahuin Group are shown as having been
affected by low-grade regional
metamorphism. In 1980 I was able to
study this problem firsthand, and
collected samples from "metamorphic"
and from "nonmeta-morphic" areas. All
rocks are equally thoroughly lithified. In
thin section, none of the samples
displays evidence of metamorphism, nor
is any difference evident between
samples taken from the two areas.
Probably no part of the Alamor Group
has been subjected to regional
metamorphism.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Early parts of this study were

financed by the National Geographic
Society, the Escuela Politecnica
Nacional, and PREDESUR. The
study was completed under Grant
RD-93 of the National Research
Council of Canada. Ing. Manuel Diaz
of PREDESUR provided
transportation to collect samples from
the Alamor Group.

REFERENCES CITED

Bristow, C. R., 1973, Guide to the geology

of the Cuenca basin, southern
Ecuador: Quito, Ecuadorian
Geological and Geophysical Society,
54 p.
 fique, 410 p.
Feininger, Tomas, 1975, Origin of
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--1977, Simple Bouguer gravity anomaly
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--1978, Mapa geol6gico de la parte
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--1980a, Eclogite and related high-pressure
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--1980b, Petrology of Andean
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Feininger, Toma.s, and Bristow, C. R.,
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849-874.
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--1980, Outline of the geology of Ecuador:
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Liddle, R. A., ar..d Palmer, K. V. W., 1941,
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Martinez, Maximo, 1970, Geologia de!
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origen de! petr6leo en rocas
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americano de Geologia, v. 2, p. 105-
138.
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ci6n, 383 p.
--1971, Geologie von Ecuador: Berlin,
Gebriider Borntraeger, 316 p. Servicio
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Mapa Geol6gico de la
Republica de! Ecuador: Quito,
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Trouw, Rudolph, 1976, Cuatro cortes por
la faja metam6rfica de la Cordil-lera
Real, Ecuador: Guayaquil, Escuela
Superior Politecnica de! Litoral,
Boletfn Cientffico, v. 1, 40 p.
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