CAPARO-BELLA VISTA, Group

PALEOZOIC

State of Mérida, Venezuela

Author of name: P. Christ, 1927.

Original reference: P. Christ, 1927, p. 404.

Original description: ibid.

In 1927, Christ described a series of limestones, calcareous schists, sandstones, sandy marls, argillaceous schists, quartzites, micaschists and sandy micaceous schists which he called the Caparo-Bellavista series. (Misspelled by Christ as Caparro-Bellavista series). Sutton (1946, p. 1631) referred to it as the Caparo-Bellavista group (misspelled by him as Caparro-Bellavista group). According to Schuchert (1935, p. 692-694) Terry collected good middle Ordovician fossils from this group 3/4 of a mile southeast of the Mérida-Santa Bárbara trail crossing of Río Caparo in the state of Mérida. Kündig (1938, p. 24) discovered the Caparo "series" to be separated from the Bellavista "series" by a narrow zone of La Quinta conglomerates, evidently associated with a large strike fault. Kündig believes two distinct "series" were wrongly grouped by Christ into one "series". To the older, metamorphosed "series", Kündig restricted the name Bellavista; to the younger, unmetamorphosed "series", he restricted the name Caparo.

See BELLAVISTA, Formation and CAPARO, Formation.

W. A. Mohler