BELTRAN, CARLOS, Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research (FUNVISIS), Caracas, Venezuela

ABSTRACT: Neotectonic Map of Venezuela and Neighboring Areas at Scale 1:2,000,000

An updated neotectonic map of Venezuela is presented, synthetizing works carried out by the FUNVISIS Earth Science Workgroup since 1979 and which includes the northeastern Colombian region and Trinidad island.

The map shows a main deformation belt, some 40 to 100 km wide, with the most important evidences of quaternary activity and considered as the boundary between South America and Caribbean plates. Two secondary belts defining the borders of the Maracaibo Block are outlined as well.

In the main belt, the major features are represented by the interconnected strike-slip fault systems of Bocono-San Sebastian-El Pilar-Los Bajos-El Soldado. Important tectonic complications can be observed along this belt, like the "Pamplona indenter" associated structures that connects to the frontal fault system of the Colombian Eastern Range in the western end, and in the eastern end the high compressive zone of Trinidad that constitutes a transition between the strike-slip fault system and the subduction zone of the Lesser Antilles. In addition, oblique secondary systems can be seen at both sides of the principal deformation axis without crossing it.

Two other important secondary systems, the Santa Marta-Bucaramanga and the Oca-Ancon faults, and the main fault of Bocono define the Block of Maracaibo, which is characterized by important internal deformations.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90988©1993 AAPG/SVG International Congress and Exhibition, Caracas, Venezuela, March 14-17, 1993.