ARAYA-PARIA, Metamorphic Group

See DRAGON, Formation; LAVENTILLE, Formation; MARACAS, Formation and MARAL, Formation

DRAGON, Formation

JURASSIC ? or older

State of Sucre, Venezuela

Author of name: H. G. Kugler, 1953.

Original reference: H. G. Kugler, 1953, p. 29-30.

Original description: ibid.

The Dragon formation was originally named and described as a lithologic unit of orbicular gneiss by H. G. Kugler (1953, p. 29-30).

The type locality is in the steep cliffs that stick out from the channel of Boca de Dragón (or Boca de Dragos) which is located between the Gulf of Paria and the Caribbean Sea, from Punta de las Peñas to Mejillones, Paria Península, State of Sucre.

Kugler describes the rock of Punta de las Peñas as "a pinkish weathering, typical augengneiss, seemingly alternating with greenish chloritic schist". "The Dragon gneiss appears to be a paragneiss, although" the posibility of a granitic basement is not excluded." The description is supported by earlier observations carried out by Wall and Sawkins (1860, p. 105). These authors noticed a well layered gneiss dipping south and containing green and light red mica, cut at slight angles by chloritic and sericitic bands which suggest an igneous origin.

The gneiss at Mejillones loses its tabular structure and becomes more massive and somewhat granitoid. To the south of Punta de las Peñas it alternates with a greenish talcose rock which changes to quartzous and micaceous phyllites. Further south, the authors found a phyllite that they had seen at the Northern Range of Trinidad and noted an evident gradation from gneiss to slate.

Kugler indicates a regular regional dip of 55 SE. and a thickness of approximately 2.000 m. for the Dragon formation. According to this author the unit is a "reminiscent of the augengneiss of the Peña de Mora formation described by Dengo (1951)... although no aplitic or granatiferous rocks have so far been observed in the Dragon formation". He also says that "there is no direct indication of the age" of this unit, but "it is apparently less metamorphosed than the Peña de Mora formation".

Kugler (p. 35) places the Dragon formation at the base of his Caribbean series. He mentions indirect evidences (pebbles found on a creek) near Cristóbal Colón for the presence of outcrops of quartz - micaschists, probably overlying the Dragon formation, that are comparable to the "epiquartzites" of the Maracas beds of Trinidad described by Suter. On the other hand, the gypsiferous phyllites of Cristóbal Colón and Morrocoy (misspelled "Morocoy by Kugler), interbedded with lenses and layers of silty limestone, seem to be very similar to the pre-Cretaceous (Jurassic) Maraval beds of Trinidad, described also by Suter. A tentative sequence in the Paria Peninsula would include: Dragon formation; quartz - micaschists (equivalent to Maracas); gypsiferous phyllites and silty limestones (equivalent to Maraval).

This sequence has been tentatively referred by Gonzaìez de Juana (1947, p. 693, table) to an "Araya- Paria metamorphic group" of pre - Cretaceous age, prior to the post - Tithonian orogenesis.

J. M. Sellier de Civrieux