EL VERAL, Beds

See EL VERAL, Formation

EL VERAL, Formation

State of Falcón, Venezuela

Author of name: A. Senn, 1932 (private report).

Original reference: C. González de Juana, 1937, p. 202.

Original description: H. N. Suter, 1937, p. 272.

González de Juana (1937, p. 192) was the first to mention the "El Veral beds" (termed "paquete de El Veral" in the spanish edition, 1937, p. 202) in published literature stating that the "Curazaíto group" occupies near Puerto Cumarebo the stratigraphic position of the "El Veral beds". He pointed out that these "Veral beds" are more or less equivalent to the formation called Punta Gavilán by A. Senn and R. Rutsch.

Suter (1937, p. 272) included the "El Veral beds" as the lowermost of three units in his Punta Gavilán formation at Cumarebo. He described the "El Veral beds" as sandy limestone of brown to yellow color, with a certain amount of limonitic material. He mentioned that the type locality is at El Veral, a small hill southeast of Puerto Cumarebo. Suter stated that the base of these beds is formed by a transgression bed with breccious calcareous concretions. According to Suter the "Veral beds" overlie the clays of the La Vela formation, and in Punta Zamuro the clays of the Socorro formation.

Payne (1951, p. 1860-1861) stated that the type section of the El Veral formation extends ocross the western end of El Veral ridge, located about 0.5 kilometer north of Cumarebo field. The section there consists essentially of glauconitic clays interbedded with detrital limestones containing quartz and chert grains. There are also some intercalations of clay. On the El Veral ridge, the formation is about 700 feet thick. East of the Cumarebo field the formation is about 1,200 feet thick due to faulting during the deposition of the El Veral sediments. Payne pointed out that the formation shows some thickening to the west of El Veral ridge and in the Soledad area contains a basal boulder bed with components of Cumarebo limestone, sandstone and chert. Payne stated that the El Veral formation overlies the Caujarao formation conformably at the El Veral type locality. Surface evidence both at the east and west of Cumarebo field, however, indicates an unconformity at the base of the formation. Payne pointed out that the formation is found only north and northeast of the oil field. He considered the age of the El Veral formation to be late Miocene.

Mencher et al. (1951, correlation chart) showed the El Veral formation in the column of Falcón (Cumarebo) unconformably overlain by the Tucupido formation and conformably overlying the Caujarao formation. The El Veral formation is then shown to be the lateral equivalent of the La Vela formation and to be upper Miocene in age.

Information taken from private reports indicates that the El Veral formation extends from the Cumarebo area in northeastern Falcón to the La Vela structure in northern Falcón where it passes through lateral gradation into the La Vela and then into the Codore formation. At present, the Curazaíto group of González de Juana (1937, p. 191-192) is considered to represent the basal member of the El Veral formation. The reason for this usage is that the type locality of the Curazaíto lies to the east of the La Vela structure and the beds of this unit are continuous and can be traced into the El Veral type locality still further to the east while they are separated by the same La Vela structure from the type locality of the La Vela formation. Originally González de Juana (1937, p. 191-192) stated that near La Vela and east of Taratara, in northern Falcón, the La Vela formation presents at the base the "Curazaíto group" which he described as impure, yellow, conglomeratic, glauconitic and fossiliferous limestones, calcareous sandstones lithologically similar to the limestones, yellow clays and oyster banks. González de Juana claimed that the Curazaíto continues eastward and occupies near Puerto Cumarebo the stratigraphic position of the El Veral beds, in the upper part of the La Vela formation. It appears from González de Juana´s description that he considered the El Veral to represent the upper part of his La Vela at Cumarebo. Present practice is to consider the La Vela and El Veral as equivalent formations and a number of geologists even have discontinued to use the name La Vela formation because the type locality of this formation occurs in an area of lateral transition between the Codore formation to the west and the El Veral formation. As the Curazaíto member of the El Veral formation thickens easward of Cumarebo, it grades laterally into the Punta Gavilán formation, while the upper part of the El Veral formation disappears below the sea.

Leo Weingeist