The Vianí Fault () is a dextral

oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry * Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the ...

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. I ...

in the department of Cundinamarca in central

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The fault has a total length of and runs along an average northwest to southeast

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

of 055.5 ± 15 in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team that currently competes in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. History Inaugural playing squad (1992) Honours *Premiers (2): 2002, 2013 *Runners-up (6): 199 ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

Etymology

The fault is named after Vianí, Cundinamarca.Paris et al., 2000a, p.48

Description

The Vianí Fault is located on the western slope of the

of the Colombian

. The fault places

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

rocks of the

Villeta Group The Villeta Group () is a group (geology), geological group of the Cordillera Oriental (Colombia), Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, to the west of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The group, a sequence of shales, limestones and sandstones, is s ...

(

Trincheras Trincheras is a town in Trincheras Municipality, in the north-west of the Mexican state of Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative div ...

Simijaca Simijaca () is a town and municipality in the Ubaté Province, part of the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. The town centre is located at an altitude of on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at from the capital Bogotá. Simijaca borders the Boyacá ...

, Hiló and Capotes Formations), to the northwest against

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

rocks of the Güagüaquí Group to the southeast. In the southern area of the fault, the north–south oriented Vianí Fault thrusts the Seca Formation on top of the Hoyón Formation. Farther to the north at Vianí, the fault strike changes to northeast–southwest and the fault displaces the Bituima Fault.Plancha 227, 1998 The fault trace is characterised by offset spurs, degraded

fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrastin ...

s, saddles, small

pull-apart basin In geology, a basin is a region where subsidence generates accommodation space for the deposition of sediments. A pull-apart basin is a structural basin where two overlapping (en echelon) strike-slip faults or a fault bend create an area of crust ...

s, aligned drainage, and deflected streams. The fault borders the

Guaduas Guaduas () is a municipality and town in Colombia, in the Lower Magdalena Province department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca, about 117 km from Bogotá. It is an agricultural and tourist center of some importance with a populati ...

Synclinal to the east and south.Acosta & Ulloa, 2001, p.71 It forms the northwestern boundary of the

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a savanna#Savanna ecoregions, montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is si ...

. A maximum

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

is estimated to be 7.2 on the basis of probable rupture of entire fault length. The slip rate is estimated at per year based on offset morphologic and neotectonic features.

References

Bibliography

* *

Maps

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viani Fault Seismic faults of Colombia Thrust faults Strike-slip faults Inactive faults Faults Faults