EL CANTIL, Formation

CRETACEOUS (Aptian Cenomanian)

State of Monagas, Venezuela

Author of name: R. A. Liddle, 1928.

Original reference: R. A. Liddle, 1928, p. 124, etc.

Original description: ibid.

The name El Cantíl formation was introduced by R. A. Liddle for the limestones and shales that occur in the Serranía del Interior between the Barranquín and the Upper Cretaceous Guayuta Group (riddle, 1928, p. 124). The El Cantíl cliff is lain three kilometers west (not east as mentioned in Liddle, 1928, p. 124) of the town of Punceres, Monagas, on Río Punceres (see Rod and Maync, 1954, p. 220-221).

According to R. A. Liddle, the El Cantíl formation consists of "about 1000 feet of hard, blue shale, gray, dark-gray, dove-colored, and black, calcitic limestone containing interbedded, brownish-gray, grayish-black, and black carbonaceous, pyritic, sulphurous shale" (Liddle, 1928, p. 125).

H. H. Renz reports grits and sandstones from the El Cantíl formation (Renz, 1942, p. 522), and H. D. Hedberg mentions "coarse, glauconitic, crossbedded Barranquín-like sandstones" within the limestone sucession (Hedberg, 1950, p. 1187). These clastics had previously been assigned to the Barranquín formation (riddle).

It has become evident that the stratigraphic sequence of the El Cantíl formation in the El Cantíl area is strongly faulted, that many sections have been miscorrelated, and that only the lowermost beds are exposed at the type locality (Hedberg, 1950, p. 1187; Rod and Maync, 1954, p. 220 etc.). The term El Cantíl was retained for the limestone section and the name Chimana formation was introduced for the sandstones and shales which may replace the reef limestone (Hedberg and Pyre, 1944, p. 8; Hedberg, 1950, p. 1187, etc.) (= Bergantín Beds). The Chimana and El Cantil formations are thus partially considered to be lateral facies equivalents but the term Chimana formation is also used for the uppermost portion of the former El Cantil formation.

E. Rod finally rejected the ill-defined and misapplied comprehensive term El Cantil formation altogether and established a more accurate subdivision of the concerned stratigraphic interval (Rod and Maync, 1954, p. 228).

See Borracha, Chimana, and Boqueron-Majagual formations.

Wolf Maync