CERRO DE ORO, Series

See CERRO DE ORO, Beds

CERRO DE ORO, Beds

CRETACEOUS? TERTIARY?

State of Táchira, Venezuela

Author of name: C. J. Maury, 1925.

Original reference: C. J. Maury, 1925, p. 412.

Original description: ibid.

In a brief paper on Venezuelan stratigraphy, Maury lists under the heading "Tertiary-Cretaceous, Indeterminate", the following:

"Cerro de Oro beds, unfossiliferous except for a single fern frond of the genus Pecopteris.

Identification Steinmann; Correlation Sievers, 1889: Tertiary; 1893; Tertiary or Cretaceous, or both."

Since the name Cerro de Oro does not seem to have been used by any later authors, the undersigned has not thought it worth-while to localize the publications by Sievers so vaguely indicated; they are probably the two listed below as Sievers (1889) and (1896). However, in a publication by Sievers (1888, p. 68), we ran across a reference to the locality, which at least places it in Táchira. Sievers remake that Tertiary is developed in Táchira in Cerro de Oro, a mountain about 1,300 meters high, between the rivers Quinimarí and Torbes; that this mountain is cut through by a "quebrada", in which appear thick beds of golden-yellow sulphur which gives the mountain its name.

We have been unable to locate any "Cerro de Oro" on a topographic map of Táchira. Possibly a geologist familiar with the region could localize it Both Cretaceous and Tertiary formations outcrop in this region, so without this localization one cannot hazard an opinion on the age. The identification of "Pecopteris" sounds highly improbable, since this is a Paleozoic genus, but gives a slight suggestion that the formation might be the Angostura, which is said to contain plant fossils.

Frances de Rivero