page_title: Paja Formation
section_title: Paleogeography
hierarchical_section_title: Paja Formation / Paleogeography
caption_attribution_description: English: Paleogeography of northern South America - Barremian-Aptian - 120Ma
context_page_description: The Paja Formation is an Early Cretaceous geologic formation of central Colombia. The formation extends across the northern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the Western Colombian emerald belt and surrounding areas of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. In the subsurface, the formation is found in the Middle Magdalena Valley to the west. The Paja Formation stretches across four departments, from north to south the southernmost Bolívar Department, in Santander, Boyacá and the northern part of Cundinamarca. Well known fossiliferous outcrops of the formation occur near Villa de Leyva, also written as Villa de Leiva, and neighboring Sáchica.
  The formation was named after Quebrada La Paja in Betulia, Santander, and stretches across 450 kilometres from northeast to southwest. The Paja Formation overlies the Ritoque and Rosablanca Formations and is overlain by the San Gil Group and the Simití and Tablazo Formations and dates from the late Hauterivian to late Aptian.
context_section_description: During deposition of the Paja Formation, the paleo coastline was oriented west-east.
  From the late Aptian to early Albian, the area was covered by an extensive carbonate platform, in the extent of the Paja Formation represented by the San Gil Group, Tablazo Formation and Villeta Group.
caption: Paleogeography of northern South America during the Barremian and early Aptian
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