Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309

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Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvolgeores

New thermo and geochronological constraints on the

Pliocene-Pleistocene eruption history of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex,
Eastern Cordillera, Colombia
Matthias Bernet a,⁎, Cindy Urueña b, Sergio Amaya b, Mary L. Peña b
a
ISTerre, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble Cedex 9, France
b
Servicio Geologico Colombiano, Sede Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Paipa-Iza volcanic complex is the only volcanic edifice in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. Zircon fission-
Received 25 June 2016 track and U\\Pb data from deposits of two eruption epochs presented in this study constrain the time of volcanic
Received in revised form 9 August 2016 activity between 5.9 Ma in the late Miocene and at least 1.8 Ma during the early Pleistocene. These ages corre-
Accepted 17 August 2016
spond to 3.6 to 4.7 Ma zircon fission-track ages reported from tephra deposits of the Tierra Negra region to the
Available online 19 August 2016
southwest of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex in the Eastern Cordillera. A 4 Myr period of volcanic activity is longer
Keywords:
than the previously documented 2.5 Ma to 1.9 Ma activity in the Paipa-Iza area. Therefore, our data show that the
Paipa-Iza volcanic complex Paipa-Iza volcanic complex was active during the entire Pliocene phase of rapid surface uplift, when the Eastern
Zircon fission-track analysis Cordillera reached its present-day elevation. Unclear is if the magma chamber of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex
U\\Pb dating was passively uplifted with the rest of the Eastern Cordillera, or if magmatism contributed to surface uplift. Hy-
Volcanism drothermal activity and steep thermal gradients in the study area today indicate that a magma chamber is still
Recycling present at depth.
In both the zircon fission-track and U\\Pb data of this study the recycling of zircon from underlying Mesozoic sed-
imentary rocks is evident in the wide age spectra. The fission-track data show that many recycled zircons were
affected at least by partial annealing, but further research is needed for constraining the thermal impact of the
Paipa-Iza volcanism on the Eastern Cordillera.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Present-day volcanic activity in Colombia is in general focused on
the Central Cordillera. This volcanism is seen in connection with sub-
duction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate along
the Pacific margin of South America (e.g. Marín-Cerón et al., 2010).
Nonetheless, localized Pliocene-Pleistocene volcanic activity has also
been observed in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia with the Paipa–
Iza volcanic complex, approximately 150 km to the northeast of Bogotá
(Fig. 1). The area around Paipa is known for its hydrothermal activity,
such as the Pozo Azul thermal spring with a water temperature of 73 °C,
CO2 gas seepages associated with regional faults, and local geothermal
gradients of about 74 °C/km. Aside from these indications of a magma
chamber at shallow depth, the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex is regarded
as being inactive (Vargas and Mann, 2013). After initial mapping by
Renzoni et al. (1983), the eruption history of the Paipa-Iza volcanic
complex has been studied in detail by Pardo et al. (2005a,b), identifying
two eruption epochs with a total of 14 different volcanic units. Initial
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: matthias.bernet@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr (M. Bernet).
Ar\\Ar and K\\Ar dating by Pardo et al. (2005a) indicate that volcanic
activity occurred between 2.5 and 1.9 Ma. Furthermore zircons with
3.6–4.7 Ma fission-track ages from tephra deposits in the Tierra Negra
of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense to the southwest of Paipa (Fig. 1)
were also linked to the activity of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex in
the Eastern Cordillera (Jaramillo et al., 2005). Nonetheless, a more de-
tailed chronology is needed for better constraining the period of volca-
nic activity in this area.
The Eastern Cordillera experienced exhumation and rapid surface
uplift during the Pliocene-Pleistocene (e.g. Gómez et al., 2005), which
is largely documented in apatite fission-track studies and has been at-
tributed to climatic and tectonic forcing (Mora et al., 2008; Parra et al.,
2009b). Therefore, the activity of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex oc-
curred during the Pliocene evolution of the Eastern Cordillera, but at
this stage it is not clear how the volcanism and the rapid surface uplift
are linked.
The purpose of this study is to use zircon fission-track and U\\Pb
dating from a suite of 11 samples collected in the Paipa-Iza volcanic
complex (Fig. 2), to provide A) additional geochronological constraints
on the eruption history, and B) to use the observed grain-age distribu-
tions for characterizing contamination of volcanic units by underlying

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2016.08.013
0377-0273/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
300 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309
Caribbean plate
1-2 cm/yr
N
CC
Nazca plate
WC
6 cm/yr
81°W 80°W 79°W 78°W 77°W 76°W 75°W
Fig. 1. Tectonic overview map of the Northern Andes in Colombia, show the study area in the Eastern Cordillera. EC = Eastern Cordillera, CC = Central Cordillera, WC = Western Cordillera,
PIVC = Paipa-Iza volcanic complex, MV = Magdalena Valley, SM = Santander Massif, MA = Merida Andes, QM = Quetame massif, FM = Floresta massif, TN = Tierra Negra. This map was
constructed using GeoMapApp version 3.6.1 (http://www.geomapapp.org/).
Paleozoic crystalline basement rocks and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks
during the two eruption phases. The motivation for this second part of
the study is to better understand a) the detrital thermochronological
signal that is derived today from this area, and b) the thermal effect
the Paipa-Iza volcanism had on the surrounding, primarily Cretaceous
sedimentary country rock.
2. Geological setting
2.1. Eastern Cordillera
The formation of the Eastern Cordillera of the Northern Andes in Co-
lombia is seen in a geodynamic context with the subduction of the
Nazca and Caribbean plates beneath the South American plate, and col-
lision of the Panama block with northwestern South America. Compres-
sional deformation in the Eastern Cordillera region started in the Late
Cretaceous, reactivating preexisting Jurassic and Early Cretaceous gra-
ben structures and mid-crustal low angle detachment faults (Dengo
and Covey, 1993; Branquet et al., 2002; Cortés et al., 2006). The Eastern
Cordillera consists of Precambrian and Paleozoic crystalline and meta-
sedimentary basement rocks, overlain by Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous
clastic rift sedimentary rocks, Upper Cretaceous shallow marine sedi-
mentary rocks, and locally preserved Cenozoic clastic rocks (e.g.
Dengo and Covey, 1993). Early growth of the Eastern Cordillera com-
menced during the middle Eocene to Oligocene, and intensified during
the Miocene-Pliocene. Since the Eocene, compressional deformation
has migrated to the east (Gómez et al., 2005; Parra et al., 2009a,b;
Mora et al., 2010a,b; Parra et al., 2012). The initial surface uplift was
probably moderate, but since the Oligocene, the rising Eastern Cordille-
ra blocked the arrival of zircons derived from the Guyana shield, causing
a shift in sediment provenance detectable in the zircon U\\Pb age signal
of sedimentary units deposited in the intermontane Magdalena River
basin (Horton et al., 2010a,b; Nie et al., 2010), which developed be-
tween the Central and Eastern Cordillera since the Eocene (Fig. 1). The
main phase of surface uplift of the Eastern Cordillera occurred however
by late Miocene to Pliocene times (Gregory-Wodzicki, 2000; Gómez et
al., 2005), as suggested by paleobotanic studies (van der Hammen,
1966; van der Hammen et al., 1973; Hooghiemstra et al., 2006). The
11°N
10°N
9°N
MA
SM 8°N
Llanos
7°N
MV
FM 6°N
PIVC Guyana
TN shield
Llanos
EC 5°N
Bogotá
QM
Villavicencio 4°N
South American plate
3°N
74°W 73°W 72°W 71°W 70°W 69°W 68°W 67°W 66°W
phase of rapid surface uplift is also reflected in faster rates of exhuma-
tion, based on thermochronological studies in the Eastern Cordillera,
and has been attributed to climatic (Mora et al., 2008) and tectonic forc-
ing (Parra et al., 2009a,b).
2.2. The Paipa-Iza volcanic complex
In previous studies, the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex with its alkali
trachytes and rhyolites (Cepeda and Pardo, 2004; Pardo et al., 2005b)
is regarded as having formed during the late Pliocene (Pardo et al.,
2005a) when the Eastern Cordillera had reached its present-day eleva-
tion. The pyroclastic deposits of the volcanic complex overlie mainly
Late Cretaceous clastic sedimentary rocks over an area of about
31 km2, extending about 10 km in SW-NE direction and 3 km in NW-
SE direction (Fig. 2). Two eruption epochs with 14 different volcanic
units have been defined for the Paipa volcano by Pardo et al. (2005a),
with the first epoch reflecting caldera collapse, and the second epoch
lava dome collapse (Fig. 3). Today, the erosional remnants of the Paipa
volcano rise about 300 m above the Cundiboyacense plateau to eleva-
tions of 2870 m (Pardo et al., 2005a). The caldera has a diameter of
roughly 3.5 km and is located in the center of the volcanic complex.
The pyroclastic deposits of the first eruption epoch are mainly found
from the caldera in a northeastern direction. The units related to the sec-
ond eruption epoch, including the lava dome remnants, are found with-
in the caldera and to the south of it (Fig. 2). Many of the ignimbrite, ash
flow and pumice tuff flows of both eruption epochs show a range of lith-
ic fragments from the underlying country rock, including Paleozoic
phyllite, schist and quartzites or Cretaceous mudstone, siltstone, green
sandstone, and quartz arenites, but also pumice or lava dome fragments
in the stratigraphically upper part of the second eruption epoch deposits
(Pardo et al., 2005a). Three Ar\\Ar and K\\Ar ages of 2.5–1.9 Ma from
pyroclastic rocks of the second eruptive epoch pin the volcanic activity
to late Pliocene times (Pardo et al., 2005a,b).
The origin of this volcanism is not well understood, but the forma-
tion of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex may be linked to the regional
fault pattern of NW-trending normal faults and NE-trending reverse
faults. Magmas may have risen along crustal faults such as the Paipa
lineament (Cepeda et al., 2004; Pardo, 2004), facilitating a pathway
 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309 301

a)

b)
302 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309

Fig. 3. Simplified stratigraphic column of the Paipa volcano deposits (modified after Pardo et al., 2005a). The samples collected from the Iza sites are not easily correlated stratigraphically
with the Paipa deposits, because of the lack of detailed mapping.

Fig. 2. a) Map of the Paipa-Iza area showing the sample locations. This map was constructed using GeoMapApp version 3.6.1 (http://www.geomapapp.org/). b) Simplified geological map
of the Paipa volcano and volcanic deposits. Modified after Mapa Geológico de Volcanitas de Paipa PLANCHAS 171–191, REPÚBLICA DE COLOMBIA - Departamentos de Boyacá y Santander
(Velandia, 2003; Pardo et al., 2004).
 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309 303

Table 1 U\\Pb dating. None of the samples contained sufficient apatite grains
Paipa-Iza volcanic complex samples. for fission-track analysis. The sampling locations of the analyzed sam-
Sample number Latitude Longitude Elevation Unit Lithology ples are listed in Table 1 and shown in Fig. 2.
(°N) (°W) (m)

44505 5.63053 73.02387 2515 II.9–II.10 Pyroclastic 3.2. Zircon fission-track dating
44506 5.63053 73.02387 2515 II.9–II.10 Pyroclastic
45978 5.69526 73.11160 2646 II.2a–6 Ignimbrite Zircon aliquots of 11 samples were mounted in Teflon® sheets,
45979 5.69591 73.11257 2649 II.2a–6 Pyroclastic
polished and etched for up to 35 h in a NaOH-KOH melt at 228 °C.
45980 5.69466 73.11359 2645 II.1 Rhyolite
45981 5.73249 73.07052 2610 I.3 Pyroclastic After etching the grain mounts of all samples were cleaned and covered
45982 5.72645 73.09646 2640 I.3 Ignimbrite with mica sheets as external detectors. All samples were irradiated with
45985 5.69849 73.09608 2626 II 3b–5a Ignimbrite thermal neutrons together with Fish Canyon Tuff and Buluk Tuff age
45987 5.58403 73.05224 2821 II.7–II.8 Volcaniclastic standards and IRMM541 dosimeter glasses at the well-thermalized
45990 5.63389 73.02236 2579 II.9–II.10 Volcaniclastic
45992 5.72678 73.15325 2707 Guaduas Fm. Sandstone
FRMII reactor in Garching, Germany, using a nominal fluence of
0.5 × 1015 n/cm2.
After irradiation mica detectors were etched for 18 min at 21 °C with
for magma ascent and eventual volcanic eruptions at the surface. 48% HF to reveal induced tracks. All samples were analyzed using an
Magmatism in the Eastern Cordillera has been attributed to subduction Olympus BX51 optical microscope and the FTStage 4.04 system at the
of the Caribbean plate beneath the South American plate (Jaramillo and Thermochronology Laboratory of the Servicio Geologico Colombiano
Rojas, 2003; Vargas and Mann, 2013). The trachytic and rhyolitic lithol- at Bogotá. Tracks were counted dry at 1250× magnification. Between
ogies of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex rocks (Cepeda and Pardo, 2004), 10 and 50 grains were analyzed per sample and fission-track grain
show a back-arc geochemical signature and hint at crustal delamination ages were calculated using the Binomfit software of Brandon (see
at depth (Pardo et al., 2005a,b). It is not known what size the magma Ehlers et al., 2005). The Fish Canyon Tuff and Buluk Tuff age standards
chamber has or at which depth it is located. were used for zeta calibration.

3. Methods 3.3. Zircon U\\Pb dating

3.1. Sample collection and preparation
A total of 16 samples was collected from outcrops of the Paipa-Iza
volcanic complex rocks and five from Upper Cretaceous sandstones of
the clastic Guaduas Formation in close vicinity to Pliocene-Pleistocene
volcanic rocks or present-day hydrothermal springs. Four to seven kilo-
grams of rock were collected per sample and all samples were crushed,
pulverized and sieved (200–80 μm). Heavy minerals were separated
using standard Wilfley table, heavy liquid and magnetic separation
techniques in the Thermochronology Laboratory of the Servicio
Geologico Colombiano at Bogotá. Ten of the volcanic rock samples and
one of the Plaeners to Guaduas Formation samples yielded zircons for
fission-track analysis, and two of these samples were also used for
Zircons of samples 45982 (Unit I.3) and 45979 (Unit II.2a–6) were
analyzed by LA-ICP-MS for U\\Pb dating at the Thermochronology Lab-
oratory of the Servicio Geologico Colombiano at Bogotá, using a
ThermoFisher Element II mono-collector mass-spectrometer and a
193 nm Photon Machine excimer Laser. Zircon aliquots were first
mounted in epoxy resin together with age standards, and polished to
expose an internal grain surface. Laser ablation analyses were set up
for 30-second bursts with a 240-shot count, a repetition rate of 8 Hz,
with a 15 μm spot size. Certain zircon crystals were analyzed in the
core and on the grain margins. After every five unknowns, Fish Canyon
Tuff (27.9 Ma), Mount Dromedary (99.2 Ma), Plesovice (337.1 Ma), or
FC5 (1099 Ma) standard zircons were analyzed to control analytical pre-
cision (see Supplementary data). Data reduction was done with the

Table 2
Paipa-Iza volcanic complex zircon fission-track ages.

Sample n ρs Ns ρi Ni ρd P(χ2) Dispersion Central age (Ma) ±2σ P1 Age (Ma) ±2σ P2 age (Ma) ±2σ
(10−5 cm−2) (10−5 cm−2) (10−5 cm−2) (Fraction) (fraction)

44505 20 8.42 (521) 40.8 (2524) 3.71 0.0% 163.4% 4.6 0.5 2.2 0.3 172.4 17.6
(89.5%) (10.5%)
44506 17 44.9 (2286) 18.8 (956) 3.72 0.0% 177.3% 22.3 21.1 0.9 0.4 327.4 55.7
(47.1%) (52.9%)
45978 20 1.88 (143) 26.4 (2004) 3.75 0.1% 42.6% 1.6 0.5 1.0 0.4 2.5 0.8
(60.3%) (39.7%)
45979 20 3.46 (325) 23.9 (2248) 3.76 0.0% 39.3% 3.2 0.7 2.7 0.4 6.9 2.2
(87.6%) (12.4%)
45980 20 1.89 (157) 26.7 (2213) 3.77 0.1% 43.0% 1.5 0.4 1.0 0.3 2.6 0.7
(70.2%) (29.8%)
45981 19 30.7 (1757) 39.1 (2235) 3.78 0.0% 170.4% 13.7 11.5 2.8 0.1 231.6 39.4
(66.5%) (33.5)
45982 20 6.79 (631) 21.8 (2027) 3.79 0.0% 47.9% 7.3 1.7 3.8 0.7 9.9 1.3
(42.3%) (57.7%)
45985 10 32.9 (469) 28.6 (409) 3.41 0.0% 159.0% 23.9 27.7 2.8 1.0 231.3 75.6
(50%) (50%)
45987 51 14.6 (2059) 30.1 (4237) 2.62 0.0% 102.0% 9.4 2.8 5.4 0.6 72.8 12.6
(80.4%) (19.6%)
45990 12 25.0 (489) 25.1 (492) 2.62 0.0% 166.5% 17.7 19.5 1.6 0.6 224.5 79.5
(50%) (50%)
45992 10 84.8 (1225) 13.0 (188) 2.62 0.0% 84.4% 104.0 59.8 44.1 11.4 181.8 40.4
(30%) (70%)

Note: Fission-track age is given as Central Age (Galbraith and Laslett, 1993). Samples were counted dry with a BH-2 Olympus microscope at 1250× magnification. Central and peak ages
were calculated with the Binomfit program of M. Brandon (see Ehlers et al., 2005), using zeta values of 114.83 ± 1.69 and 136.65 ± 5.17 of two different analysts and the IRMM 541 do-
simeter glass (50 ppm U).
304 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309
a)
b)
c)
Fig. 4. a) Probability density plot of the combined volcanic rock samples zircon fission-
track single grain-age data. Best-fit peak ages determined with the Binomfit program of
Brandon (see Ehlers et al., 2005). b) Probability density plot of the Guaduas Formation
sample zircon fission-track single grain-age data with best-fit peak ages. c) Percentage
of grains with volcanic cooling ages, partially reset cooling ages and non-reset cooling
ages.
Iolite, IGROpro software with the Iolite plug-in, using the 0 s–38 s
baseline as integration time, and for standard and unknown analysis
32.5 s–8 s. 238U, 206Pb and 204Pb isotopes were manually integrated in
order to fit the integration area and reduce the interferences between
signals. The uncertainties in the data presented here include internal
and propagate correction uncertainties; all uncertainties are reported
at the 2σ level.
4. Results
4.1. Zircon fission-track dating
The zircon fission-track data of the ten volcanic rock samples and the
one detrital sample show very wide age spectra, ranging from 0.2 to
556 Ma and 31 to 600 Ma respectively. Therefore, all samples fail the
χ2-test and contain more than one age component (Table 2; Fig. 4a,b).
The zircon fission-track ages from samples 45981 and 45982 of unit
I.3 of the first eruptive epoch show young age components at 2.8 to
3.8 Ma, an intermediate age component at 9.9 Ma and an old age com-
ponent at 231 Ma. The pyroclastic rocks of the second eruptive epoch
have a young age component between 0.9 and 2.8 Ma, a second compo-
nent of 5.4 to 6.9 Ma, and older components ranging from about 73 to
327 Ma. When combining the 209 single grain ages of all ten volcanic
rock samples the following age pattern of four age components
emerges: 1.6 Ma ± 0.1, 5.7 Ma ± 0.4, 54.1 ± 8.2 Ma and 293.5 ±
33.2 Ma. About 45% of the dated grains belong to the youngest age com-
ponent at 1.6 Ma and about 35% to the second youngest component at
5.7 Ma of this combined dataset (Fig. 4c). On the contrary, the one detri-
tal sample collected from the Cretaceous clastic Guaduas Formation
shows two age components at 44.1 ± 11.4 Ma and 181.8 ± 40.4 Ma,
but only 10 grains were analyzed in this sample because of the very
low zircon yield. In Table 2 we also report central ages of all samples
to provide an estimate of the average age of the sample, but the central
ages do not carry any geological information in this case. All single
grain-age data are given in the Supplementary data.
4.2. Zircon U\\Pb dating
Different age components in the zircon U\\Pb age spectra of both
samples were determined with the DensityPlotter program of
Vermeesch (2012), using a linear scale plot (Fig. 5). The 106 zircons
from sample 45982 (Unit I.3) analyzed with U\\Pb method show a
range of ages from 2.21 Ma to 1518 Ma, with age peaks of about
3.3 Ma, 276 Ma, 412 Ma, 706 Ma and 973 Ma (Fig. 5a). A total of 113 zir-
con analyses were done for sample 45979 (Unit II.3). These zircons
range in age from 1.79 Ma to 1567 Ma, and age peaks are at 2.2 Ma,
420 Ma, 707 Ma, 928 Ma and 1515 Ma (Fig. 5b). In both samples zircons
with young ages are relatively rare with only 7 grains in sample 45,979
from 1.79 to 3.07 Ma, and 35 grains in sample 45,982 with ages between
2.21 to 5.93 Ma. All young U\\Pb ages are discordant and were only
measured on grain margins (Figs. 6 and 7), whereas all the grain cores
had concordant old ages. All U\\Pb analysis data of unknown samples
and age standards are given in the Supplementary data.
5. Discussion
Thermo- and geochronological data can provide different types of
information. Normally it is expected that the zircon U\\Pb ages indicate
when the zircons crystallized, in general during crystallization at about
800 °C from a magma and to a minor extent during metamorphism. The
U\\Pb age of zircon found in volcanic rocks is in general indicative of the
time of eruption. In contrast, the fission-track ages are low-temperature
apparent cooling ages, and in case of monotonic cooling indicate the
time when a zircon crystal has cooled below the fission-track closure
temperature (Dodson, 1973). The closure temperature itself depends
largely on the rate of cooling and can vary between about 200 °C for
very slowly (b 0.5 °C/Myr) cooled zircons, to over 240 °C for moderately
cooled (15 °C/Myr) zircons, to well over 300 °C for very rapidly cooled
(N100 °C/Myr) zircons (Brandon et al., 1998; Tagami et al., 1998; Rahn
et al., 2004; Reiners and Brandon, 2006; Bernet, 2009). In the absence
of crustal contamination, zircons found in volcanic rocks, such as the
Fish Canyon Tuff, experienced very rapid cooling and the fission-track
cooling age and U\\Pb are identical within their 2 sigma errors, because
crystallization and rapid cooling happened basically at the same time.
This is why a rock such as the Fish Canyon Tuff, which does not contain
contamination by country rock zircons, can be used as an age standard
in geo- and thermochronology.
Detrital zircons found in sedimentary rocks are commonly derived
from different source areas. They may present a mixture of zircons
cooled slowly, moderately or rapidly during exhumation with a whole
range of different apparent cooling ages (e.g Bernet et al., 2004), plus
the possible contribution from volcanic sources (e.g. Bernet and
Garver, 2005; Jourdan et al., 2013). In addition, when the sedimentary
 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309 305

a)

(14.2±3.3%)
2.211±0.013

(49.6±4.7%)
420.1±0.63

(7±2.4%)
707.7±3.1

(27.5±4.2%)
928.9±2

(1.8±7.5%)
1515±11
40

30

20

10

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

45979 (n=113)
(43.4±4.8%)
3.3561±0.0099

(8.9±2.8%)
276.7±1.3

(21.2±4%)
412.2±1.1

(10.4±3%)
706.4±2.6

(16±7.5%)
973.4±2.7

b)

44

33

22

11

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

45982 (n=106)

Fig. 5. a) Zircon U\
\Pb age spectrum of sample 45982. Peak ages determined with the DensityPlotter program of Vermeesch (2012). b) Zircon U\
\Pb age spectrum of sample 45982. Peak
ages determined with the DensityPlotter program of Vermeesch (2012).

rock is heated during burial and/or through magmatism in the basin, the
cooling age signal from source area exhumation and/or volcanoclastic
signal may be altered by partial or full resetting. In such a case some
or all of the zircons of a sedimentary rock may have apparent cooling
ages younger than the age of deposition (Garver et al., 2005).
First cycle zircons of volcanic origin in sedimentary rocks that were
not heated sufficiently after deposition to cause partial resetting of fis-
sion tracks are useful stratigraphic markers, because their fission-track
ages may indicate the time of deposition (e.g. Kowallis et al., 1986;
Bernet and Garver, 2005). Such zircons can be identified by fission-
track or U\\Pb dating, or the combination of both, fission-track and
U\\Pb double dating of single grains (e.g. Jourdan et al., 2013).
Given all these constraints, the geo- and thermochronological data
presented in this study for the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex need to be
carefully interpreted. The age spectra are not simple and contain a
whole range of information on sediment provenance, the timing of vol-
canic activity, and the thermal impact of Paipa-Iza volcanism on the
country rock.
306 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309

Fig. 6. Terra-Wasserburg plots of the young zircon U\

\Pb ages in sample 45979 and 45982 on the left and right respectively.

5.1. The U\\Pb age signal and the timing of volcanic activity
At this stage no single grain double-dating was performed on the
Paipa-Iza volcanic complex zircons, but for samples 45979 and 45982
we have fission-track and U\\Pb ages from different aliquots (sample
double dating). The youngest zircon U\\Pb ages of sample 45982
of unit I.3 of the first eruption epoch range from 2.21 to 5.93 Ma,
and from 1.79 to 4.47 Ma for sample 45979 of unit II.3 of the second
eruption epoch. All these young U\\Pb ages were determined in
euhedral overgrowth along grain margins and not in the rounded
cores of the grains (e.g. Fig. 7). This means that all the zircons are
inherited zircons from probably some sedimentary protolith and that
some of these zircons received a zircon overgrowth in the Paipa-Iza
magma chamber before eruptions. No completely newly crystallized
zircons were detected, at least not in the grain size range analyzed in
this study.
Even if the young volcanic zircon U\\Pb ages are discordant, the 2.2–
2.4 Ma zircon U\\Pb ages are compatible with the 2.5 Ma Ar\\Ar age re-
ported by Pardo et al. (2005a), and the 5.93 Ma zircon U\\Pb age in
sample 45982 indicates that the magma chamber existed already dur-
ing the latest Miocene. Assuming that this is correct, volcanism in the
Paipa-Iza volcanic complex started at the very beginning of the phase
 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309 307

euhedral zircon
overgrowth in Paipa-Iza
magma chamber

914.9 +/- 19 Ma
439.8 +/- 7.8 Ma

4.14 +/- 0.52 Ma 4.47 +/- 0.53 Ma

Fig. 7. Cathodoluminescence images of zircons of sample 45979 with location of spot analyses in the grain center and the grain margins. The U\
\Pb in the core of the grains show ultimate
provenance. The intermediate age is probably related to Silurian metamorphism of the original source rock. Note the rounding of the metamorphic overgrowth probably during
sedimentary transport. The late euhedral overgrowth in the Paipa-Iza magma chamber corresponds to the phase Pliocene volcanism.

of rapid surface uplift of the Eastern Cordillera during the Pliocene, and
therefore much earlier than previously thought.
Zircons with Cretaceous crystallization ages and older were probably
recycled from Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks underlying the
Paipa-Iza region, as such age spectra have been described in the Meso-
zoic cover rocks of the Eastern Cordillera (Horton et al., 2010a,b). How-
ever, zircons with 400–500 Ma ages may also have come directly from
the Eastern Cordillera crystalline basement, equivalent to the Quetame
or Floresta massifs, which have crystallization ages of 477–482 Ma
(Horton et al., 2010b).
The zircon U\\Pb ages as young as 1.79 Ma may that volcanic erup-
tions occurred during the Pleistocene, as seven more eruptive units
overly Unit II.3 (Fig. 3). Consequently, the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex
was active from the latest Miocene to the early Pleistocene, during
the time of rapid surface uplift in the Eastern Cordillera (van der
Hammen et al., 1973; Gregory-Wodzicki, 2000; Gómez et al., 2005;
Hooghiemstra et al., 2006; Mora et al., 2008; Parra et al., 2009a,b).
This raises the question if the magma chamber was passively uplifted
with the rest of the Eastern Cordillera, or did the magmatism contribute
to surface uplift? Future research needs to address this question, but
given the rather limited extent of the volcanic deposits preserved in
the Paipa-Iza area and the tephra fall-out deposits in the Tierra Negra re-
gion to the southwest (Fig. 1), we think that the associated magma
chamber is probably relatively small and may have contributed very lit-
tle to surface uplift.
5.2. The fission-track age signal and the inheritance of zircons
The zircon fission-track ages of the samples analyzed in this study
confirm the two essential observations from zircon U\\Pb analyses: a)
the timing of volcanic activity and b) the recycling of zircon by the incor-
poration on country rock during eruptions. Using the combined dataset
of all ten volcanic samples the two youngest fission-track age peaks at
1.6 and 5.7 Ma (Fig. 4a) match well with the range of young zircon
U\\Pb ages from 1.79 to 5.93 Ma. The fission-track ages obtained here
are also in agreement with the zircon fission-track ages between 3.6
to 4.7 Ma for the tephra deposits in the Tierra Negra region by
Jaramillo et al. (2005). These tephra deposits, in total between 20 to
40 m thick, may indicate a probable increase in magmatic activity.
How this is related to fast surface uplift of the Eastern Cordillera needs
to be determined?
Given that the late Miocene to Pleistocene U\\Pb ages were only de-
termined in euhedral overgrowth no real first cycle volcanic zircons are
present, all zircons even those that were in the magma chamber are
recycled zircons from country rocks. This means for the fission-track
analyses that in some zircons fission tracks were completely annealed
308 M. Bernet et al. / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327 (2016) 299–309
and cooled rapidly during the volcanic eruptions, whereas as other zir-
cons were derived from the sedimentary country rock. Zircons with vol-
canic cooling ages make up about 80% of the zircons dated with the
fission-track method (Fig. 4c), and these zircons came directly from
the magma chamber during the eruptions. The about 20% of partially
annealed or non-annealed zircons that make up the two older fission-
track age peaks at 54 Ma and 293 Ma in the combined dataset
(Fig. 4a) reflect recycling from Cretaceous country rock. Given the com-
mon occurrence of lithic fragments in the volcanic deposits of the Paipa-
Iza volcanic complex, recycling of zircons is very likely. Furthermore,
when comparing the 54 Ma and 293 Ma age peaks to the limited
fission-track data obtained from the Guaduas Formation sandstone
(Fig. 4b), the recycling of grains from the Cretaceous country rock be-
comes obvious as well. We admit that the ten dated grains of this sam-
ple are insufficient for properly describing the fission-track age
spectrum of this sedimentary rock. Nonetheless the few dated grains re-
flect a partially annealed signal of grains obviously younger than their
age of deposition, and a group of grains with only slightly or non-rest
fission-track ages related to Jurassic cooling. The question is was the
partial annealing of the zircons in this sample caused by burial heating
alone, or was partial annealing caused by magmatic/hydrothermal
heating during the Paipa-Iza volcanic phase? Partial annealing of zircon
occurred at least in Early Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Eastern
Cordillera along the Bogotá – Villavicencio profile (see Parra et al.,
2009b), but given the Late Cretaceous stratigraphic position of the
Guaduas Formation, and the near vicinity to a hydrothermal breccia
(Fig. 2b), we think that partial annealing here was more likely caused
by magmatic/hydrothermal heating of the sedimentary rocks. Nonethe-
less, this question of partial annealing needs to be studied in more detail
with an improved dataset.
6. Conclusions
With the new zircon fission-track and U\\Pb data presented in this
study for the two eruption epochs of the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex in
the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, we conclude that volcanic activity
stared at around 5.9 Ma and lasted at least until about 1.8 Ma. These
four million years of volcanic activity are much longer than previously
thought, and it shows that the Paipa-Iza volcanic complex was active
throughout the phase of rapid surface uplift of the Eastern Cordillera
during the Pliocene, when this mountain belt reached its present-day
elevation. Given the hydrothermal activity, CO2 gas seepages and strong
present-day local geothermal gradients in the study area, a magma
chamber still exists at depth. Therefore, the Paipa-Iza volcanism may
be inactive at the moment, but it is probably not yet extinct.
The recycling of country rock during the volcanic eruptions, as indi-
cated by the presence of lithic fragments, is also clearly visible in the fis-
sion-track and U\\Pb age spectra of the samples analyzed in this study.
The country rock in the vicinity of the volcanic complex was affected at
least by partial annealing of the zircon fission-track system because of
magmatic/hydrothermal heating in connection with volcanic activity.
However, further research is needed to better constrain the degree
and extent of the thermal impact of the Paipa-Iza volcanism on the
sedimentary cover rocks of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia in that
area.
Acknowledgements
We thank Yolanda Canon, Lorena Rayo, Jimmy A. Muñoz for help
during fieldwork sample preparation and analysis, and Alberto Garcia
and Jaime Garzón for the geological maps. We thank the Editor Dr.
Malcom J Rutherford, and we gratefully acknowledge the reviews of
Maria Isabell Marin Ceron and an anonymous reviewer, which helped
to improve the manuscript. We declare no conflict of interest.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2016.08.013.
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