Cenozoic Sedimentary Evolution of the Amazonian Foreland Basin System

In this chapter we present a synthesis of the Cenozoic evolution of the Amazonian foreland basin system, based on a review of the estimated ages, lithology and sedimentary structures, palaeontological content, and inferred depositional environments of sedimentary units in the basin. In addition, we have calculated maximum sedimentation rates for the Cenozoic formations of the northern Peruvian foreland basin and integrated these with existing data on sedimentation rates, subsidence analysis, migration of depocentre and depositional environments. Based on this information we propose a model for the Cenozoic evolution of the Amazonian foreland. The sedimentary architecture of this foreland basin indicates that Cenozoic evolution was marked by several periods, which were roughly synchronous and of similar effect, along the entire Amazonian foreland basin system. Tectonic loading of the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and northern Bolivia, and development of the Amazonian foreland, was initiated during Late Cretaceous-Paleocene times and followed by an unloading stage during the Early-Middle Eocene period. The Middle-Late Eocene marine transgression and the increase in sedimentation rates, associated with westward migration of the depocentre, were all indicative of a renewed phase of tectonic loading of the Peruvian Western Cordillera and the Ecuadorian and Colombian Eastern Cordillera. Subsequent Oligo-Miocene increase in sedimentation rates and further migration of the depocentres towards the present-day sub-Andean zone, are all indicative for a thrust-induced uplift and loading of the Eastern Cordilleras of Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. This Oligo-Miocene loading stage maintained high subsidence rates that favoured the sedimentation of aggradational floodplain and coastal plain and tidally influenced deposits. Nevertheless, the processes that controlled the Early-Middle Miocene marine ingressions remain to be determined. Late Miocene ongoing thrust tectonic loading of the Eastern Cordillera, initial structuring of the sub-Andean zone and the onset of the main phase of Andean surface uplift induced flexural subsidence in the foredeep depozones of the entire Amazonian foreland basin. This process also drove the Late Miocene marine transgressions that characterized the filled stage of the Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Bolivian Amazonian foreland basin system. Valley incisions and full relief development in the hinterland during the Late Miocene-Pliocene provided increased sediment supply and overfilled the Amazonian foreland basin system. Finally, the flat-slab subduction of the Nazca ridge induced Pliocene (~4 Ma) uplift of the Fitzcarrald Arch and subdivided the Amazonian foreland basin into the northern and southern Amazonian foreland basins.