SALOMON, Member
TERTIARY (Miocene)
State of Anzoátegui, Venezuela
Author of name: A. Krumholz, 1941.
Original reference: H. D. Hedberg and A. Pyre, 1944, p. 22.
See: QUIAMARE, Formation.
QUIAMARE, Formation
TERTIARY (predominantly Miocene)
States of Anzoátegui and Guárico, Venezuela
Author of name: A. Krumholz, 1943 (private report).
Original reference: H. D. Hedberg and A. Pyre, 1944, p. 23.
Original description: ibid.
The Quiamare member of the Santa Inés formation or group was named by A. Krumholz (1943, private report) and first published by Hedberg and Pyre (1944, p. 23) for a unit overlying the Caparicual formation in the Barcelona area, exposed along the Puerto La Cruz-Oficina highway, from the crest of Boca Tigre hill southward to San Mateo. It is defined as a series of largely non-marine, mottled claystones, pebbly sandstones, carbonaceous shales and lignites, probably some 10,000 feet thick, of middle to upper Miocene age. The member is said to be the western equivalent of the following members of the Santa Inés type section (from bottom to top) named by Krumholz in 1941 (private report) and first published by Hedberg and Pyre (1944, p. 22): (1) Revoltijo member, from Quebrada Revoltijo south of Santa Inés, composed of 2,000 feet of carbonaceous shales, lignites and mottled claystones with some sandstone and conglomerate, of middle Miocene age; (2) Salomón member, from Quebrada Salomón some 9 kilometers southwest of Santa Inés, composed of 4,200 feet of mottled claystone with some hard chert pebble conglomerates and sandstones, of middle to upper Miocene age; (3) Dividive member, forming the Dividive ridge east of San Mateo, composed of 600 feet of calcareous siltstones, sandstones and conglomerates. This member is now referred to as the San Mateo member (Hedberg, 1937, p. 2010; Mencher et al., 1951, Correlation Chart) since the name Dividive is pre-occupied by the Miocene Dividive limestones of Senn (1935, p. 81) in Central Falcón. The name San Mateo was created by Garner (1926, p. 683) for a unit described as "massive, coarse, conglomeratic, brown, cross-bedded sandstone; mottled white clays; contain much iron oxide, a little lignite, gypsum and few fossil lime lenses" of Pliocene and possibly upper Miocene age surrounding the town of San Mateo in Anzoátegui. The age of the San Mateo member is now considered to be middle or upper Miocene.
Hedberg (1950, p. 1202) raised the Quiamare member to formation rank, and subdivided it into: a lower member, identical with the original Quiamare member of Hedberg and Pyre, forming the surface rock over the Quiamare anticline and grading laterally east of the type section into the shallow-water marine "Orégano formation". Westward, in northwestern Anzoátegui and northeastern Guárico it is dominantly of continental and brackish-water origin with occasional shallow-water marine horizons and is commonly characterized by lenticular, fine to coarse-grained greenish-brown and gray, thin-bedded to massive sandstones, clay-pebble conglomerates, thin, dense, fossiliferous limestones ("Onoto limestone"), calcareous sandstones and mottled claystones, with common brackish to shallow-water marine mollusks. The upper member includes the Dividive ridge and younger sediments north of it, and consists of sandy limestones and calcareous sandstones in Dividive, and red claystones, brown sandstones and occasional lignites and sandy limestones farther west in the Llanos area. On this occasion Hedberg did not mention the previously described Revoltijo, Salomón and Dividive (San Mateo) members which, however, were retained by Mencher et al. (1951, Correlation Chart).
The Quiamare formation conformably overlies the Capiricual formation and its lateral equivalents (Hedberg, 1950, fig. 5) and is unconformably overlain by the upper Miocene-Pliocene Sacacual group. It outcrops along northern Anzoátegui and northeastern Guárico.
There is growing paleontological evidence that the age of the Quiamare formation extends from the topmost Oligocene to middle or upper Miocene.
Cecily Petzall