NAVAY, Facies
CRETACEOUS
State of Táchira, Venezuela
Author of name: L. Kehrer, 1938.
Original reference: L. Kehrer, 1938, p. 49.
Original description: L. Kehrer, 1937, p. 66.
The Navay facies was defined by Kehrer (1938, p. 49) as a predominantly cherty-clayey facies of the Middle and Upper Cretaceous that crops out along the southeastern Venezuelan Andean mountain front from Santo Domingo, State of Táchira, to the Río or Quebrada Quiu (El Mene), State of Barinas. The facies was named from the Río Navay which is a tributary of the Río Caparo of the southwestern Venezuelan Llanos. A description of the Navay facies had been previously given by Kehrer (1937, p. 66) in his general discussion of the Cretaceous between La Palmita (southeast of San Cristóbal) and the region of Santa Bárbara, State of Barinas, although the facies was not differentiated by name.
Kehrer (1938, p. 49) stated that the Cretaceous age of the Navay facies is established by a limestone bank with typical Exogyra of the Cogollo limestone and a fair amount of fish-remains in the interbedded clay and chert beds.
(See also SANTA BARBARA Facies, ORTIZA Facies and QUIU Facies)
H. Alberding
ORTIZA Facies
CRETACEOUS
State of Táchira, Venezuela
Author of name: L. Kehrer, 1938.
Original reference: L. Kehrer, 1938, p. 49.
Original description: ibid.
The Ortiza facies was defined by Kehrer (1938, p. 49) as a predominantly limy facies of the middle and upper Cretaceous that crops out along the southeastern Venezuelan Andean mountain front from Santo Domingo, State of Táchira to the Quebrada or Río Quiu (El Mene), State of Barinas. The facies was named from a locality called Ortiza near the Santo Domingo airport, south of San Cristobal, in the State of Táchira. Kehrer (ibid., p. 49) stated that the Ortiza facies is equivalent to the Colón shales, in addition to the La Luna and Cogollo limestones, and thus its Cretaceous age is established.
(See also SANTA BARBARA Facies, NAVAY Facies and QUIU Facies.)
H. Alberding
QUIU Facies
CRETACEOUS
State of Barinas, Venezuela
Author of name: L. Kehrer, 1938.
Original reference: L. Kehrer, 1938, p. 49.
Original description: ibid.
The Quiu facies was defined by Kehrer (1938, p. 49) as a predominantly sandy-clayey facies of the middle and upper Cretaceous that crops out along the southeastern Venezuelan Andean mountain front from Santo Domingo, State of Táchira, to the Quebrada (Río) Quiu (El Mene), State of Barinas. The facies was named after the Quebrada (Río) Quiu located 37 kilometers northeast of the town of Santa Bárbara, Barinas.
Kehrer (ibid., p. 49) stated that the Quiu facies is proven to be Cretaceous (Turonian) by fossil evidence determined by Woodring. Dr. J. G. Bursch of the Phillips Paleontological Laboratory determined typical Colón foraminifera from the middle of the Quiu facies at its type locality and thus established a Campanian-Maestrichtian age for at least that part of the facies.
(See also SANTA BARBARA Facies, ORTIZA Facies and NAVAY Facies).
H. Alberding
SANTA BARBARA Facies
CRETACEOUS
State of Barinas, Venezuela
Author of name: L. Kehrer, 1938
Original reference: L. Kehrer, 1938, p. 49.
Original description: L. Kehrer, 1937, p. 66.
The Santa Bárbara facies as defined by Kehrer (1938, p. 49) is part of a general facies differentiation of the Cretaceous along the southeastern Venezuelan Andean mountain front from Santo Domingo, State of Táchira, to the Quebrada or Río Quiu (El Mene), State of Barinas. Over this distance of 280 kilometers, Kehrer (1938, p. 49) defines four facies types: 1) the Ortiza facies (predominantly limy) (to the west near Santo Domingo); 2) the Navay facies (predominantly cherty-clayey) (named from outcrops on the Río Navay); 3) the Santa Bárbara facies (predominantly cherty-sandy) (named from the town of Santa Bárbara); and 4) the Quiu facies (predominantly sandy-clayey) (named after the Río El Mene or Quiu). Kehrer (1938, p. 49) states: "these facies changes comprise the strata from Colon shales to and including Luna-Cogollo limestone. Between the diferent facies types exist transitions. There is no doubt about the Cretaceous age of Ortiza facies (Colon shales, Luna-Cogollo limestones). The Cretaceous age of the transition to the Navay facies is established by a limestone bank with typical Exogyra of the Cogollo limestone and the fair amount of fish-remains in the interbedded clay and chert beds. The Quiu facies is proven as Cretaceous (Turonian) by fossil evidence determined by Woodring. The thicknesses of upper-middle Cretaceous sediments are increasing towards the east and reach about 1,700 meters in the Santa Bárbara area".
"It is considered possible that the distribution of these facies types depends on the situation of old basement ridges. These different facies types seem to be shallow water deposits. In spite of the fact that they look rather different, they have a few characteristics in common such as good stratification, numerous fish-remains, cherts and limestone beds."
"This part of the Cretaceous in the South Andean area is very similar to the corresponding Cretaceous in the Bogotá area, viz., the Guadalupe series (Turonian?) consisting there also of sandstones, cherts, clays and fishbone beds."
Kehrer (1937, p. 66) had previously discussed these Cretaceous beds in general terms without naming the various facies such as the Santa Bárbara. He mentioned that: "To the south of the Andean watershed between La Palmita (southeast of San Cristóbal) and the region of Santa Bárbara, State of Barinas, the Cretaceous seems to be developed in a somewhat different facies. The black chert horizon which reaches a thickness of 40-50 meters in northern and western Táchira becomes considerably thicker. The cherts have whitish-gray colour; siliceous shales and sandy shales with much vegetable matter are interbedded, the limestone banks of La Luna and Cogollo have practically disappeared and dark shales and micaceous slates occupy their places above the Tomón sandstone. This modified chert horizon contains a fair amount of fish remains, viz., scales, teeth and vertebra. In certain cases we may even speak of a fish bone-bed. Shales sometimes carry Orthokarstenia ewoldi Karst, and undetermined bryozoa."
The writer would take exception to the thickness of 1,700 meters of upper-middle Cretaceous sediments in the Santa Bárbara area as given by Kehrer (1938, p. 49). It would appear that Kehrer did not recognize the reworked nature of much of this section as pointed out by Liddle (1946, p. 532-33).
(See also SANTA BARBARA "Series" and SANTA BARBARA DE "ZAMORA" Beds.)
H. Alberding
SANTA BARBARA "Series"
CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY
State of Barinas, Venezuela
Author of name: P. Christ, 1927.
Original reference: P. Christ, 1927, p. 406.
Original description: ibid.
As described by Christ (1927, p. 406) the Santa Bárbara series consists of aseries of basal sands and brown sandstones which crop out at a locality called Boca del Monte at the foot of the mountains four kilometers north-west of Santa Bárbara, State of Barinas. Overlying the basal sediments, according to Christ, are a group of cliff-forming travertines and quartzites, followed by brown sands and then a series of white sands named Sables de Capitanejo (Sands of Capitanejo) (see also Capitanejo sandstone member of Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds). Highest in Christ's section are more brown sands which crop out at the town of Santa Bárbara. The age of this series is given as Tertiary and probably middle Tertiary (ibid., p. 406). However, included within Christ's Santa Bárbara series is the Cretaceous Tomón sandstone (or series) of Kehrer (1937, p. 66), the Cretaceous Santa Bárbara facies of Kehrer (1938,p. 49) and the Tertiary Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds of Liddle (1946, p. 532-33). Under these circumstances of mistaken age assignments and inadequate lithologic descriptions, it is recommended that the term as defined and described by Christ be dropped from future usage. (See also SANTA BARBARA Facies and SANTA BARBARA DE "ZAMORA" Beds.)
H. Alberding
SANTA BARBARA DE "ZAMORA" Beds
TERTIARY
State of Barinas, Venezuela
Author of name: W. G. Argabrite, 1924.
Original reference: R. A. Liddle, 1928,p. 354-55.
Original description: ibid.
As stated by Liddle (1928, p. 354), the Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds were originally named the Santa Barbara beds by Argabrite in 1924 after outcrops near the town of Santa Bárbara in what was then the State of Zamora. Later, Liddle (1946,p. 532) modified the name to Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds to avoid confusion with other Santa Bárbara place names in Venezuela although the name of the state had been changed in the meantime to Barinas.
Liddle (1928, p. 354-55) originally described the Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds as Quaternary lacustrine or deltaic deposits cropping out in the southeastern foothill belt of the Venezuelan Andes from the Río Chu (Quiu or El Mene) through the type locality of Santa Bárbara, State of Barinas (then Zamora) to San Antonio de Caparo over a distance of 120 kilometers. A local total thickness of 2,500 feet (762 meters) was stated to exist and the basal (lower) part of the beds was described as composed of 2,000 feet (609 meters) of siliceous zones of "infusorial" and "diatomaceous" earth together with "chalks", marls and thin sands with fish-bones and scales accompanying the "infusoria" and "diatoms". The writer's examination of these beds confirmed the presence of siliceous zones but not of diatomaceous earth nor of chalk. The upper part of the beds were stated by Liddle to be composed of poorly consolidated, nearly-pure, white sandstones containing ferruginous concretions.
In Liddle's revised text (1946,p. 532-33) he recognized that the Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds were older than Quaternary, as he had stated in 1928, and a possible Miocene and/or Pliocene age was assigned. Also, Liddle recognized that the basal (lower) part of the Santa Bárbara beds contains reworked siliceous material as well as marls and "chalks" with fish remains derived from the middle and upper Cretaceous leached siliceous beds of Kehrer's (1938, p. 49) Santa Bárbara facies, which crop out in the vicinity. Liddle mentioned (1946, p. 533) that where the original and derived material are in contact, it is difficult to distinguish between them.
The upper, white, poorly consolidated sandstone member of Liddle's Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds was originally called the Sables of Capitanejo (Sands of Capitanejo) by Christ (1927, p. 406) and included in his Santa Bárbara series which he considered Tertiary in age, but which included both Kehrer's Cretaceous Santa Bárbara facies and Liddle's Tertiary Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds.
The sands of Capitanejo (or Capitanejo sandstone member) were named from outcrops on the Río Capitanejo, 30 kilometers northeast of Santa Bárbara. At this locality, a thickness of 30 meters of medium to thickbedded, massive, fine to coarse-grained, white to yellow, to brown, to mottled lavender quartzose sandstone to grit to pebble conglomerate with some grey shale at the base, composes the Capitanejo sandstone member. On the Río El Mene or Quiu, seven kilometers to the northeast, the member is at least 100 meters thick and has stringers and seams of coal up to 30 centimeters thick interbedded with the sandstones and grey silty claystones.
A definite age assignment of the Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds is not yet possible. On the Río Curito, located between the Ríos Santa Bárbara and El Mene, the writer collected samples from the lower siliceous zone of the Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds and these samples contained reworked upper Eocene Paují foraminifera, as identified by Dr. J. G. Bursch of the Phillips paleontological laboratory, in addition to reworked fish remains derived from Kehrer's (1938, p. 49) Cretaceous Santa Bárbara facies. It can thus be said that the age of the Santa Bárbara de "Zamora" beds is at least post-middle Eocene Tertiary based on the presence, in the basal part of the beds, of reworked upper Eocene foraminifera which may have begun to have been redeposited in latest upper Eocene times. The Capitanejo sandstone member may correlate with the Oligocene and/or Miocene Palmar formation on the opposite side of the Venezuelan Andes based on marked resemblances in lithology and stratigraphic position between the two formations.
(See also SANTA BARBARA Series and SANTA BARBARA Facies.)
H. Alberding