page_title: Cesar-Ranchería Basin
section_title: Compressive margin II
hierarchical_section_title: Cesar-Ranchería Basin / Description / Tectonic history / Compressive margin II
caption_attribution_description: Cerro Pintao - Serrania del Perija, Venezuela.
context_page_description: The Cesar-Ranchería Basin is a sedimentary basin in northeastern Colombia. It is located in the southern part of the department of La Guajira and northeastern portion of Cesar. The basin is bound by the Oca Fault in the northeast and the Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault in the west. The mountain ranges Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá enclose the narrow triangular intermontane basin, that covers an area of 11,668 square kilometres. The Cesar and Ranchería Rivers flow through the basin, bearing their names.
  The basin is of importance for hosting the worldwide tenth biggest and largest coal mine of Latin America, Cerrejón. The coals are mined from the Paleocene Cerrejón Formation, that also has provided several important paleontological finds, among others Titanoboa cerrejonensis, with an estimated length of 14 metres and a weight of 1,135 kilograms, the biggest snake discovered to date, the giant crocodylians Cerrejonisuchus improcerus, Anthracosuchus balrogus and Acherontisuchus guajiraensis, and the large turtles Carbonemys cofrinii, Puentemys mushaisaensis and Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki.
context_section_description: A second phase of compressive margin has been noted in the Cesar-Ranchería Basin by the strong differences between the sedimentary thicknesses of the Paleocene formations. During this stage in the basin development, the Cesar-Ranchería Basin was connected to the Middle Magdalena Valley to the west. The Paleocene Lisama Formation has a reduced thickness in the northern part of the Middle Magdalena Valley due to erosion, while the Paleocene section in the Cesar-Ranchería Basin is very thick. This has been explained by the tilt of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the formation of several thick-skinned thrust faults in the basin. The initiation of this compressive phase has been dated to the Maastrichtian, when tectonic uplift and deformation was active in the Central Ranges, to the west of the basin.
caption: The uplift of the Serranía del Perijá made the Cesar-Ranchería Basin an intermontane basin
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD600", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:12:14 12:46:21", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2140", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "49/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:12:14 12:46:21", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:12:14 12:46:21", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "309/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "147/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "147/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2112", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2816", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2112", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2824", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "112640/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2112000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}