ALGARROBO, Formation

TERTIARY

State of Anzoátegui, Venezuela

Author of name: R. A. Wilson, 1939 (private report).

Original reference: H. D. Hedberg, L. C. Sass and H. J. Funkhouser, 1947, p. 2104-2105.

Original description: ibid.

Wilson described the Algarrobo formation in a private report in 1939. The type section is on the headwaters of Río Algarrobo, from which it is named. This location is a few miles east of the town of Pariaguán in the western part of the District of Miranda, State of Anzoátegui. Better and more complete sections of the formation were later found on the headwaters of Río Pao.

Hedberg, Hass y Funkhouser (1947, p. 2104-2105) described the Algarrobo formations (Sacacual group, upper part) as developed in well sections of the Greater Oficina Area (southern Anzoátegui). The essential features of their description are as follows: friable, medium to coarsegrained, yellowish-gray sandstones with laterally variable bodies of light gray claystone or clay-shale. The Algarrobo formation is relatively thin in this area, overlies the much thicker Las Piedras formation, and is overlain by the Mesa formation.

Hedberg (1950, p. 1207) while writing on the Las Piedras formation says: "...A more sandy, less well-bedded, and more nearly fresh-water deposit al the top of the formation in south-central Anzoátegui is known as the Algarrobo formation from type exposures of Quebrada Algarrobo, a tributary of Río Pao". The Algarrobo formation is considered to be the western lateral equivalent to the Pando formation. According to Wilson (1940, private report), the Algarrobo formation overlies transitionally the Caicaíto formation.

No records of fossils from this formation have been found. The age of the Algarrobo is considered to be Pliocene.

Wade H. Hadley Jr.