The Ware Formation ( es, Formación Ware) is a

fossiliferous A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics (lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock expo ...

of the

Cocinetas Basin The Cocinetas Basin ( es, Cuenca Cocinetas) is a small sedimentary basin of approximately in northeasternmost Colombia. The onshore pull-apart basin is located in the department of La Guajira at the border with Zulia, Venezuela. The basin is boun ...

in the northernmost

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

La Guajira La Guajira () is a department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The capital city of the depar ...

. The formation consists of fine lithic to

quartzitic Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s, mudstones, pebbly conglomerates with sedimentary and

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, cau ...

fragments,

packstone Under the Dunham classification (Dunham, 1962Dunham, R.J. (1962) Classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. In: Classification of Carbonate Rocks (Ed. W.E. Ham), Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Mem., 1, 108–121.) system of limest ...

s and sandy to conglomeratic beds with high fossil content. The Ware Formation dates to the

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

and Quaternary periods;

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...

to Early Pleistocene epochs, typically

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Uquian The Uquian age is a period of geologic time (3.0–1.5 Ma) within the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs of the Neogene used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Montehermosan and precedes the Ensenadan The Ensen ...

Chapadmalalan The Chapadmalalan age is a period of geologic time (4.0–3.0 Ma) within the Pliocene epoch of the Neogene used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Montehermosan and precedes the Uquian age. Fossil content ...

and

Montehermosan The Montehermosan age is a period of geologic time (6.8–4.0 Ma) within the Miocene and Pliocene epochs of the Neogene used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Huayquerian and precedes the Chapadmalalan The C ...

in the SALMA classification, and has a maximum thickness of .

Etymology

The formation was defined in 2015 by Moreno et al., and given the name Ware, meaning "friend" in Wayuunaiki, the language of the local

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention * Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band * Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehor ...

Wayuu The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayúu, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Amerindian ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost part of Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Maipuran (Arawak) language family. Geography ...

, meaning "friend". The name has been given to pay tribute to the friendship between Colombia and Venezuela.Moreno et al., 2015, p.32

Description

Lithologies

The Ware Formation consists of fine lithic to quartzitic

s, mudstones, pebbly conglomerates with sedimentary and

fragments,

packstones and sandy to conglomeratic beds with high fossil content.Moreno et al., 2015, pp.32-34

Stratigraphy and depositional environment

The Ware Formation overlies the

Castilletes Formation The Castilletes Formation ( es, Formación Castilletes, N1c) is a fossiliferous geological formation of the Cocinetas Basin in the northernmost department of La Guajira, Colombia. The formation consists of fossiliferous mudstones, siltstones a ...

and is overlain by Quaternary

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

. The age has been estimated to be

to Early Pleistocene (5.2 to 1.22 Ma),

Uquian The Uquian age is a period of geologic time (3.0–1.5 Ma) within the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs of the Neogene used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Montehermosan and precedes the Ensenadan The Ensen ...

and

in the SALMA classification, with a narrow definition in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58fluvio In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or flu ...

deltaic A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rare ...

environment, whereas the marine invertebrate assemblage at the top of the unit contains taxa typical of exposed open-ocean shoreface and nearshore settings, but with proximity to coral reef habitats. The Ware Formation correlates with the San Gregorio Formation in the Venezuelan

Falcón Basin ) , anthem = , image_map = Falcon in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_mapsiz ...

.Moreno et al., 2015, p.34

Fossil content

References

Bibliography

Local geology

* *

Paleontology

* * *

Maps

* * * * {{Paleontology in Colombia, state=collapsed Geologic formations of Colombia Neogene Colombia Pleistocene Colombia Miocene Series of South America Pliocene Series of South America Uquian Chapadmalalan Montehermosan Sandstone formations Mudstone formations Conglomerate formations Deltaic deposits Fluvial deposits Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of South America Paleontology in Colombia Geography of La Guajira Department Wayuu language