SANTA LUCIA, Formation

TERTIARY (Oligocene to Miocene)

State of Guárico, Venezuela

Author of name: Geologists of the Standard Oil Co. of Venezuela, 1936, (private reports).

Original reference: H. D. Hedberg, 1950, p. 1204.

Original description: ibid.

This formation was named in 1936 by geologists of the Standard Oil Company of Venezuela (private reports), but Hedberg (1950, p. 1204) first used it in publication, where he states that the name is derived from Quebrada Santa Lucía in southeastern Guárico, and says: "...It (the formation) consists of several hundred feet of alternating greenish and gray claystones and sandy claystones, mottled claystones, carbonaceous shales and lignite beds. Brackish-water mollusks occur at a few horizons. The formation is dominantly a coastal swamp deposit and coal beds are characteristic." He also states that this formation underlies the Zuata formation. Ats it is now understood, the Santa Lucía formation is underlain by the Cucharo formation and overlain by the Zuata formation. It is included by Hedberg in the Santa Inés group.

Wm. K. MacFarquhar