CERRO COCHINO, Formation

TERTIARY (upper Miocene or Pliocene)

State of Zulia, Venezuela

synonym of LA VILLA, Formation

Author of name: A. H. Garner, 1926.

Original reference: A. H. Garner, 1926, p. 682.

Original description: ibid.

Garner (1926, p. 682) was the first author to publish and describe the Cerro Cochino formation. It was named after the Cerro Cochino, located in the south-central part of the Mara District, farther south of what Sutton (1946, p. 1708) named "kilometer 24 structure" in the southern part of Mara.

Garner described the lithologic unit as a formation characterized by coarse grained, friable, reddish-brown sandstones, intercalated with brown (ferruginous) and white clays.

Liddle (1946, p. 511-512) describes rocks that outcrop in Cerro El Cochino (in the same locality of Garner) as: hard, coarse-grained, thin conglomerate; friable, very micaceous, cross bedded, grayish brown sandstones containing fossil wood; sandy, micaceous, white, gray and grayish-blue or red and white mottled claya.

Sutton (1946, p. 1707-1708) mentions that the name La Villa formation was used by Garner (1926, p. 683) and Liddle (1928, p. 326-333) to designate claystones and sandstones outcropping near the town of La Villa del Rosario, located in the north-central part of the Perijá District. He believes that said formation is a synonym of the Cerro Cochino formation. The name Cerro Cochino is obsolete.

Félix A. Balda