BUENO, EMILIO, JOKIN ZUBIZARRETA, JOHNNY PINTO, CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR, and EUDIS PRIETO, Maraven, S.A., Caracas, Venezuela

ABSTRACT: Structural interpretation Along the Icotea Fault, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela

This structural interpretation, performed on an interactive workstation, corresponds to an area covered by three 3D seismic surveys in Lake Maracaibo. These surveys (Block I, Northern and Southern Lama) focus on the Icotea fault trend, which is one of the major structural features in the Maracaibo Basin.

The present study is centered on the interpretation of the origin and evolution of this fault trend. The Maracaibo Basin evolved from an initial phase dominated by extensional tectonism to a later compressional phase. The Icotea fault is interpreted as the border of a Triassic-Jurassic half graben. Subsequent to the deposition of shelf sediments, the fault became reactivated during the Paleocene and Lower to Middle Eocene. During the change to compressional tectonics within the upper Eocene, the half graben became inverted. As an associated event during the structural inversion, a sinistral strike slip deformation took place along the fault. The latest stage of faulting developed during Miocene, and resulted in lateral offsets along the Icotea fault system.

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