CERRO VIGIA, Formation

TERTIARY (Pliocene)

State of Zulia, Venezuela

Author of name: Geologists of the Lago Petroleum Company.

Original reference: Sutton, 1946, p. 1711.

Original description: ibid.

Sutton (1946, p. 1711) stated that the name Cerro Vigía formation has been employed in old reports to designate an alluvial fan deposit at Cerro Vigía, a small but steep hill on the trail between Pared Blanca and Los Huevitos not far south of the Río Guasare in the northwestern part of the District of Mara, northwestern Zulia. At the type locality, Sutton indicated, about 100 meters of loose boulders, cobbles and gravel, lie unconformably on the Los Ranchos formation. These clastics are chiefly of igneous and metamorphic origin. At Los Melones on the north bank of the Río Guasare in the southwestern part of the District of Páez, the formation has thinned to a mere 5 meters. The formation is unfossiliferous. Sutton suggested that the Cerro Vigía is merely a facies of the La Villa formation, but typical La Villa is exposed at Pared Blanca only 2 kilometers east of Cerro Vigia and Sutton expressed the opinión that it is doubtful whether such a rapid transition is possible. He considered the formation to be Pliocene in age.

Leo Weingeist