Middle Magdalena Basin

Geologic structures

Faulting in the Middle Magdalena Basin is primarily reverse and thrust faulting. Reverse faulting is high angle in the west and low angle in the eastern and central areas of the basin with normal faults also developing along the eastern margin. These thrust faults formed from thrusting from the eastern margin of the Central Ranges in the Eocene and the western margin of the Eastern Ranges in the Miocene. The major thrust faults in the Middle Magdalena Basin include the Infantas Thrust, La Salina Thrust, and Cantagallo Thrust. The basin is structurally bounded by the Palestina Fault, a dextral strike-slip fault system, in the west and the Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault, a sinistral strike-slip system, in the east.