PARIA, Formation

QUATERNARY

Territorio Delta Amacuro, Venezuela

Author of name: unknown.

Original reference: H. D. Hedberg, 1950, p. 1207.

Original description: ibid.

In the paper by Hedberg (1950, p. 1207) appears the following mention: "Eastward in Territorio Delta Amacuro it (i.e. the Mesa formation) grades into dominantly shaly and silty delta deposits to which the name Paria formation has been given".

We have not found any other reference to this name, from which we presume that it has been used only in private reports.

The use of the name "Paria" for these deltaic sediments appears to us most unfortunate, since it is practically a homonym of the "Parian group" of Wall and Sawkins (1860). Although this term (which included both Mesozoic and Tertiary beds) is obsolete, the general use of the term "Paria" to designate a hypothetical borderland north of the eastern Venezuelan geosyncline, is so well established in the literature (and is used by Dr. Hedberg himself in the same paper, p. 1176, 1211), that the transference of the term to these young sediments could lead to great confusion. If it were absolutely necessary to name these beds (which seems premature without a more complete description), we would suggest that the name be changed, perhaps to Delta Amacuro, or more simply, Amacuro formation. It would be much better to abstain from using any formational name until the character and relation of the beds should have been properly studied and described.

Frances de Rivero