International Geology Review

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tigr20

The Colombian geochronological database (CGD)

Andres F. Rodriguez-Corcho, Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte, Johana A. Barrera-

Gonzalez, Maria P. Marroquin-Gomez, Sarah Bonilla-Correa, David Izquierdo-
Camacho, Sofia M. Delgado-Balaguera, David Cartwright-Buitrago, Maria D.
Muñoz-Granados, William G. Carantón-Mateus, Alejandro Corrales-García,
Andrés F. Laverde-Martinez, Aura Cuervo-Gómez, Marco A. Rodriguez-Ruiz,
Juan P. Marin-Jaramillo, Nicole Salazar-Cuellar, Laura C. Esquivel-Arenales,
Maria E. Daroca, A. Sofía Carvajal, Ana M. Perea-Pescador, Juan D. Solano-
Acosta, Sergio Diaz, Alejandro Guillen, German Bayona, Agustín Cardona-
Molina, Bruce Eglington & Camilo Montes

To cite this article: Andres F. Rodriguez-Corcho, Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte, Johana A. Barrera-

Gonzalez, Maria P. Marroquin-Gomez, Sarah Bonilla-Correa, David Izquierdo-Camacho, Sofia M.
Delgado-Balaguera, David Cartwright-Buitrago, Maria D. Muñoz-Granados, William G. Carantón-
Mateus, Alejandro Corrales-García, Andrés F. Laverde-Martinez, Aura Cuervo-Gómez, Marco A.
Rodriguez-Ruiz, Juan P. Marin-Jaramillo, Nicole Salazar-Cuellar, Laura C. Esquivel-Arenales,
Maria E. Daroca, A. Sofía Carvajal, Ana M. Perea-Pescador, Juan D. Solano-Acosta, Sergio Diaz,
Alejandro Guillen, German Bayona, Agustín Cardona-Molina, Bruce Eglington & Camilo Montes
(2021): The Colombian geochronological database (CGD), International Geology Review, DOI:
10.1080/00206814.2021.1954556

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00206814.2021.1954556

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INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW
https://doi.org/10.1080/00206814.2021.1954556

The Colombian geochronological database (CGD)

Andres F. Rodriguez-Corchoa,b,s, Yamirka Rojas-Agramontea,c,d, Johana A. Barrera-Gonzaleza,e, Maria P. Marroquin-
Gomeza,f, Sarah Bonilla-Correaa,g, David Izquierdo-Camachoa,g, Sofia M. Delgado-Balagueraa, David Cartwright-
Buitragoa,g, Maria D. Muñoz-Granadosa,e, William G. Carantón-Mateusa, Alejandro Corrales-García a,
Andrés F. Laverde-Martineza,h, Aura Cuervo-Gómeza,i, Marco A. Rodriguez-Ruiza,j, Juan P. Marin-Jaramilloa,k,
Nicole Salazar-Cuellara, Laura C. Esquivel-Arenalesa, Maria E. Darocaa,l, A. Sofía Carvajala, Ana M. Perea-Pescadora,
Juan D. Solano-Acostaa,g, Sergio Diaza,m, Alejandro Guillenn, German Bayonao, Agustín Cardona-Molinap,
Bruce Eglington q and Camilo Montesr
a
Departamento De Geociencias, Universidad De Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia; bSchool of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, ,
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; cChristian-Albrechts-Universität Zu Kiel, Institut Für Geowissenschaften, Kiel, Germany; dInstitut
Für Geowissenschaften, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany; eEarthquake Science Center, Menlo Park, California, USA; fServicio
Geológico Colombiano, dirección de Geociencias, grupo Mapa Geológico de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia; gDepartamento De Mineralogía
Y Petrología, Universidad De Granada, Granada, España; hDepartment of Engineering, Iceland School of Energy – Reykjavik University,
Reykjavík, Iceland; iDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA; jUniversität Freiburg,
Institut Für Geo- Und Umweltnaturwissenschaften, Freiburg i.Br, Germany; kdepartment fur geo- und umweltwissenshaften, Ludwig
Maximilians Universität, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, München, Germany; lNEOIL Exploration S A S, Bogotá; mDepartment of Geoscience,
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; nFacultad De Ingenerìas Y Arquitectura, Universidad De Pamplona, Km 1 Vía Bucaramanga Ciudad
Universitaria Pamplona, Colombia; oCorporación Geológica ARES, Bogotá, Colombia; pDepartamento dee Procesos Y Energía, Facultad de
Minas, Universidad Nacional, Medellín, Colombia; qSaskatchewan Isotope Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, 114 Science Place,
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada; rDepartamento De Física Y Geociencias Uninorte, Barranquilla, Colombia; sSchool of
Geosciences, University of Sydney, Madsen building Camperdown NSW 2006, Australia.

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Geochronological databases are powerful tools for characterizing the crustal evolution and the age Received 10 February 2021
spectra of a region and allow comparison with other areas at a regional scale. In this contribution, Accepted 08 July 2021
we present the Colombian Geochronological Database (CGD), which contains a curated compila­ KEYWORDS
tion of ca. 67,406 individual published U-Th-Pb, K-Ar, Ar-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, Lu-Hf, Fission-track, U-Th- South america; colombia;
He, and Re-Os mineral and whole rock ages that are reported in the published literature. Each date geochronology; database;
includes geographic coordinates, geological setting, petrologic and chemical information kde
extracted from the respective publications. The structure of the database provides a powerful
interface for constructing queries and allows searching and extracting information on geographic
domains, provinces, stratigraphic units, isotopic systems, date interpretations, references, etc. This
information establishes a framework for regional and global geological interpretations with
geochronological, stratigraphic, structural and palaeogeographic implications.
With the present effort we present to the geoscience community a clear insight, from a regional
perspective, to the geology and tectonics of Colombia since Precambrian times. The comparison of
all (detrital and magmatic) single zircon U-Pb dates from the Colombian (Gondwana sourced)
geochronological database with the Global and North American (Laurentia sourced) databases
provides a temporal constraint on the evolution of the South American continent. U-Pb zircon ages
in Colombia define 13 peak clusters centred at 1767, 1530, 1325, 1178, 1007, 605,540, 468, 271, 237,
182, 76 and 10 Ma but of those, only few have a good correlation in all three databases: 1007
(Grenvillian/Orinoquian/Putumayo Orogeny), 605 (Braziliano/Pan-African Orogeny), 468
(Famatinian/Taconic Orogeny), and 182 Ma (Break-up of Pangea) zircon peaks. This correlation
suggests that some tectonic events in Colombia are global and might represent crustal production
and preservation while the other peaks might just represent local arc magmatic events.

1. Introduction
Geochronology aims to establish the age of rocks, miner­
als, and geological events including the age of miner­
alization, within a specific degree of uncertainty. The
basis for all radiometric dating methods is the sponta­
neous breakdown or decay (radioactive decay) of radio­
active parent isotopes to stable radiogenic daughter
isotopes or, in the case of fission track, the radiation

CONTACT Yamirka Rojas-Agramonte yamirka.rojas@ifg.uni-kiel.de Departamento De Geociencias, Universidad De Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Christian-Albrechts-Universität Zu Kiel, Institut Für Geowissenschaften, Kiel, Germany; Institut Für Geowissenschaften, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz,
Germany
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
damage to the crystal structure. This breakdown process
constitutes independent clocks that allow geologists to
determine the age of rocks and minerals. There are many
isotopic systems used for absolute dating, and each give
the time of crystallization, emplacement, or cooling
(thermal events) that a rock unit underwent through
geological time (e.g. U-Th-Pb, K-Ar, Ar-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd,
and apatite and zircon fission tracks).
In this contribution, we provide an open-access, user
updatable, geochronological database that summarizes
all existing geochronological data from Colombia pub­
lished since 1962. Radiometric dating in Colombia
started in the early 60s using mostly whole rock, horn­
blende and biotite K-Ar and Rb-Sr ages presented by
Pinsón et al. (1962), Botero (1963), MacDonald (1964),
Lockwood (1965) and Macdonald and Hurley (1969) on
igneous and metamorphic rocks exposed in the
Caribbean (La Guajira Peninsula), the Central Cordillera
(Antioquia state) and the Precambrian basement of east­
ern Colombia. However, some of them lack details about
the location of samples (e.g. Kroonenberg et al. 1982) or
uncertainties in their reported ages (e.g. Macdonald and
Hurley 1969; Fujiyoshi et al. 1976). On the other hand,
Figure 1. U-Pb Radiometric ages in Colombia since 1962 in logarithmic scale.
there were some limitations in establishing the age of
crystallization of rocks, and the time span of ancient
tectonic events older than ~500 Ma. The main reason
was the methods used (e.g. K-Ar and Rb-Sr) can only
measure the last thermal and/or metamorphic event
(thermal resetting by superimposed magmatic or defor­
mational events), and the limited number of available
radiometric ages.
The introduction of U-Pb dating in zircon, mostly
using the LA-ICP-MS technique, created a favourable
scenario in Earth sciences worldwide. This technique,
widely used for detrital zircon provenance studies, is
a lower cost and easily accessible equipment for the
analysis of U-Pb ages in zircons. In Colombia, this
method began to be more often used during early
2000 by researchers in international labs, making avail­
able thousands of radiometric ages since ~2010
(Figure 1). These ages have been mostly obtained from
detrital components in sediments, drill-cores and
uplifted metamorphic massifs and igneous provinces.
U-Pb dating allowed establishing and/or re-evaluating,
for the first time, the age of metamorphism and crystal­
lization of most igneous and several metamorphic rocks

outcropping in Colombia. This includes, for instance,
recognizing different Phanerozoic magmatic provinces
in the Colombian Andes, as well as to document the
maximum age of accumulation in several undated sedi­
mentary units, or refine the stratigraphic age in sedimen­
tary units with the help of palaeontological data.
The use of large databases is becoming more fre­
quent, but still only a few countries are engaged in the
painstaking work of constructing database systems.
Some of the available databases include CHRONIBERIA
(Iberian Peninsula; Lopes et al. 2014), CHRONOBANK
(Brazil, Silva et al. 2003); NGDB (National Geochemical
Database, USA; Grossman et al. 2004) and the National
Geochronological Database of the USGS (United States
Geological Survey; Geochron; http://mrdata.usgs.gov/
geochron/; http://www.geochron.org/); OZCHRON
(Australia, Sircombe 2006); Costa Rica (Alvarado and
Gans 2012); as well as the Greater Antilles database
(Wilson et al. 2019). More important are the efforts to
construct global databases to provide constraints on
crustal production, supercontinent assembly and break-
up throughout Earth history. Good examples of such
efforts are the Global databases DateView (Eglington
2004) and StratDB (Eglington et al. 2009), PANGEA
(https://www.pangaea.de/; doi:10.1594/PANGAEA) and
the ones by Condie et al. (2017), Puetz et al. (2018) and
He et al. (2018). Furthermore, the Geological Survey of
Colombia (Servicio Geológico Colombiano) published in
2015 a catalogue of radiometric dating with a total of
4427 entries (see Gómez-Tapias et al. 2015). Other pre­
vious compilations in Colombia are from Millward and
Verdugo (1981), Restrepo (1983), Maya (1992) and
Calvache (1988).
The present database is adapted from the DateView
and StratDB geochronological databases (https://sil.
usask.ca/databases.php). The records have been curated
following thorough revisions to ensure data integrity
and error correction, which include multiple random
inspections of individual records in the database and in
map view. In addition, we provide a series of KDE (kernel
density estimate) plots, which summarize the regional
age spectra and distribution of the rocks in Colombia
from Precambrian to present times. These KDE´s were
generated using a python 3.6 application based on the
Anaconda distribution (Anaconda 2016), which is also
a product of this work. The database compilation
includes both ‘raw’ analytical data (converted to numeric
date) and interpreted ‘summary’ ages. The distinction
between these is evident from the ‘Approach’ field and
also in that the ‘Sample_Name’ field does not contain
information for individual spot analyses. Furthermore,
for the compilation of igneous dates, we provide all the
individual analyses, as well as the weighted average/
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 3
concordia ages, therefore the igneous versions of these
are treated much as if they were individual detrital grain
analyses. This approach is very useful and provides
a unique ability to facilitate direct comparison of mag­
matic/metamorphic analyses for zircon data with indivi­
dual detrital grain analyses. This also allows us to
comment on how similar (or dissimilar) the two
approaches are and how representative general detrital
studies may be of original igneous data for regions. In
addition, it gives the possibility to assess the interpreted
ages in which selected grains were omitted due to dis­
turbance or inheritance.
2. Geological setting: a brief introduction to the
geology of Colombia
The northwestern corner of the South American Plate
(Figure 2) comprises a geodynamic setting defined by
the subduction-accretion of the Nazca Oceanic Plate
beneath the South American and Caribbean Plates
since the end of the Cenozoic (Hilst and Mann 1994;
Weber et al. 2010; Cardona et al. 2012; Vargas and
Mann 2013; Echeverri et al. 2015; Montes et al. 2019),
and the collision of the Chocó-Panama intra-oceanic arc
(Montes et al. 2012a, 2012b, 2015). This NW margin
includes a record of long-lived (~500–0 Ma) tectonic
activity including convergent, divergent and strike-slip
deformation (Mantilla Figueroa et al. 2012; Spikings et al.
2014; Cochrane et al. 2014b; Bustamante et al. 2016,
2017a; Van der Lelij et al. 2016; Quandt et al. 2018; Leal-
Mejía et al. 2019). This margin contains a series of amal­
gamated terranes of different age, composition and ori­
gin, and records ancient episodes of i) subduction of
oceanic lithosphere (Leal-Mejía et al. 2019); ii) continen­
tal and intra-oceanic arc magmatism (Aspden et al. 1987;
Bayona et al. 2012; Bustamante et al. 2016, 2017a,
2017b); iii) continent assemblage-rifting (Vinasco et al.
2006; Cochrane et al. 2014a, 2014b; Zapata et al. 2019).
Some of these terranes are sourced from oceanic set­
tings and correspond to accreted fragments-slivers of
exotic crust such as seamounts, thickened oceanic
crust and intra-oceanic volcanic arcs (Kerr et al. 1997;
Bustamante et al. 2011; Villagómez and Spikings 2013;
Jaramillo et al. 2017a; Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2020).
The convergence between the Caribbean, Nazca,
Panama and the South American Plates-Microplates, in
the last 10 Ma (late Miocene-present), have created
a complex geologic setting that is reflected by the high
variation of tectonic domains and geographic features.
Cediel et al. (2003), Restrepo and Toussaint (2020) and
Toussaint and Restrepo (2020) present different argu­
ments for a division of tectonic terranes of the northern
Andes. In this study, we divide the Colombian territory
4 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.

Figure 2. Geographic domains and location of main massifs, basins, faults and rivers. (LFM) La Fragua Massif, (GM) Garzon Massif, (MR)
Macarena Range, (QM) Quetame Massif, (FM) Floresta Massif, (SM) Santander Massif, (MA) Mérida Andes, (BR) Baudó Range, (DM)
Darién Massif, (SLR) San Lucas Range, (SSJB) Sinú San Jacinto Belt, (PR) Perijá Range, (SNSM) Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, (JR) Jarara
Range and (MCR) Macuira Range. Modified from Cediel (2019).

into five geographic domains for a simplified geographic
reference of geochronological studies (Figure 2). For
each geographic domain, we indicate the most impor­
tant geological features that identify their geology as
a result of the geologic evolution of the region in the last
10 Ma.
(1) The east-southeast geographic domain includes
Precambrian continental basement rocks of the Guiana
Shield (Priem et al. 1982; Reis et al. 2013) around the
Putumayo, Caquetá and Orinoco rivers (Figure 2). The
oldest rocks (1.5–1.6 Ga) are exposed in this region (see
summary in Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011; Moreno and
Escalona 2015; Ibáñez-Mejía and Cordani 2020), and are
covered by a lower Palaeozoic sedimentary sequence of
Cambrian to Early Ordovician age that includes the
Araracuara Formation and unnamed sequences in the
subsurface (Rubinstein et al. 2019; Kroeck et al. 2019).
Neogene (Jaramillo et al. 2017; Kern et al. 2020) and
Quaternary deposits are also present in the Llanos,
Putumayo and Amazonas foreland basins (Figure 2)
that are separated by the Macarena and Vaupes highs
(see Figure 1 in Jaramillo et al. 2017b). The Ecuador,
Colombian and Venezuela Andes mark the western
boundary of this region (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011).
(2) The second geographic domain includes the
Eastern Cordillera and the Magdalena Valley. The
Eastern Cordillera is a double-verging fold belt thrust
upon the Llanos foreland basin to the east (number 14
in Figure 2) and the upper and middle Magdalena basin
to the west (numbers 9 and 10 in Figure 2; Julivert 1970;
Mora et al. 2006; Bayona et al. 2008, Bayona et al. 2012,
Bayona et al. 2013; Parra et al. 2012; Caballero et al.
2013a). The Eastern Cordillera splits north of 7°N into
the northwest-trending Santander Massif in Colombia
and the northeast-trending Merida Andes of Venezuela
(Figure 2). The Santander Massif changes its trend north
of 9°N into the northeast-trending Perija Range, the
leading edge of a northwest-verging, crustal-scale, crys­
talline thrust sheet (Figure 2) that places mostly Jurassic
and Palaeozoic sequences onto Palaeogene rocks of the
Cesar-Ranchería basin (number 16 in Figure 2) and Santa
Marta Massif to the west (Kellogg and Bonini, 1982;
Montes et al. 2010).
To the south, the Eastern Cordillera merges with the
topographic expression of the Quetame and Garzon
Massifs (Figure 2) and the southern part of the Central
Cordillera (La Fragua Massif; Ujueta 1999; Figure 2).
The oldest basement rocks in the southern part of
the domain consist of Grenvillian metamorphic rocks
(0.9–1.2 Ga) covered by Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and
Cenozoic sedimentary rocks (Forero Suarez 1990;
Cordani et al. 2005; Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011; Horton
et al. 2020), with Palaeozoic and Triassic rocks showing
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 5
evidence of regional metamorphism (Ward et al. 1977;
Zuluaga et al. 2017; Rios et al. 2003; Van der Lelij et al.
2016).
(3) The Central Cordillera-San Lucas mountain belts
extend parallel to the Pacific margin and are separated
from the Eastern Cordillera by the Magdalena River
Valley Basin (Figure 2; Gómez et al. 2005, Gómez et al.
2003; Villagómez et al. 2011). Active volcanoes in the
Central Cordillera, south of latitude 5ºN, reflect the pre­
sent geodynamic configuration of the Nazca Plate sub­
duction system (Alcárcel and Gómez 2019). The oldest
basement rocks in this geographic domain include
dominant Permian and Jurassic batholiths (Vinasco
et al. 2006; Cochrane et al. 2014a, 2014b; Bustamante
et al. 2016, 2017a), as well as Triassic to Jurassic meta­
morphic rocks (Blanco-Quintero et al. 2014; Bustamante
et al. 2017; Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2020). Grenvillian meta­
morphic rocks (0.9–1.2 Ga) and metamorphic rocks of
1.5 Ga are only reported in the northern segment of the
San Lucas Range (Cuadros et al. 2014; Figure 2).
Cretaceous to early Eocene granitoids intrude these
basement rocks mostly along the axis and the eastern
flank of the Central Cordillera (Villagómez et al. 2011;
Duque-Trujillo et al. 2019; Leal-Mejía et al. 2019;
Figure 3). In the western flank of the Central Cordillera
the Romeral fault system (number 20 in Figure 2) sepa­
rates and inter-mixed continental basement rocks to the
east with oceanic basement rocks to the west (Gómez-
Tapias et al. 2015).
(4) Towards the north of the Central Cordillera-San
Lucas mountains, the rugged Colombian landscape
reconfigures to the low-topography Caribbean moun­
tain belts and basins that is interrupted by the anom­
alous high-topographic relief of the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta (Figure 2). The subdued San Jacinto and
Sinú orogenic belts (Figure 2) constitute the western
boundary of the Lower Magdalena basin (number 8 in
Figure 2) that separates the Central Cordillera to the
south from the Santa Marta Massif to the north
(Figure 2; Duque-Caro 1979, Duque-Caro 1984; Montes
et al. 2010). Farther north, this fourth domain contains
several isolated massifs with Grenvillian-age basement
rocks in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the
Macuira and Jarara Ranges in La Guajira Peninsula
(Tschanz et al. 1974; Irving 1975; Cardona et al. 2010b,
2010c; Villagómez et al. 2011a) as well as the Permian to
Triassic metamorphic belt and Jurassic plutonic rocks
described in the Central Cordillera. Palaeocene to lower
Eocene granitoids are also exposed in the northwestern
corner of these two regions (Bayona et al. 2012; Cardona
et al. 2014).
(5) The mountain ranges further west comprise the
Western Cordillera, the Baudó and Darién Ranges
6 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.

Figure 3. Map of magmatic bodies and metamorphic complexes, modified from Gómez et al. (2019). Order of units listed in the legend
is not stratigraphic.

limited to the east by the Romeral fault system (border­ this geographic domain, we also include the Colombian
ing the Central Cordillera) and the Uramita fault (border­ marine territory of the Pacific Ocean composed of
ing the Caribbean domain), and to the west with the Gorgona Island (Figure 2). The Western and the Central
Colombian pacific trench (Figure 2; Duque-Caro 1990). In Cordilleras are separated by the Cauca River Valley

(Restrepo and Toussaint 1988; Toussaint and Restrepo
1994; Suter 2008; Villagómez et al. 2011a), that farther
south changes to the Patia valley (number 5 in Figure 2).
To the southwest, the Western Cordillera topography
changes to the coastal plain region of the Tumaco fore­
arc basin (number 4 in Figure 2; Echeverri et al. 2015;
López-Ramos 2020; Pardo-Trujillo et al. 2020), whereas to
the northwest the Western Cordillera changes westward
to the Atrato valley and then to the Baudó Range
(Figure 2), which is a marginal uplift of the Atrato-
Chucunaque basins (number 1 in Figure 2; Echeverri
et al. 2015; Ordóñez-Carmona et al. 2006). The Western
Cordillera is constituted by exposures of Cretaceous
(110 Ma and 86 Ma) volcanic sequences and plutonic
rocks that formed in an oceanic environment related to
the Caribbean Large Igneous Province (CLIP) and island
arc settings (Kerr et al. 2004; Ordóñez-Carmona et al.
2007; Weber et al. 2015; Zapata-Villada et al. 2017).
Gorgona and Gorgonilla islands are part of the CLIP
and are also related to island arc settings (Révillon et al.
2000; Kerr 2005; Serrano et al. 2011). The exposures in
the Baudó and Darién Ranges have been correlated to
the CLIP (Kerr et al. 1997) and the intra-oceanic Late
Cretaceous to middle Eocene Panama arc, respectively
(Farris et al. 2011; Montes et al. 2012b, 2015, 2019).
3. Methodology and construction of the
database
The task of creating the geochronological database was
undertaken by a group of graduate and undergraduate
students (Geochronology Research Group) from the
Geosciences Department of the Universidad de los
Andes (Colombia) since 2017. The methodology imple­
mented to compile published information took steps to
minimize the impact of i) the lack of precision on the
location of the data produced before the introduction of
GPS technology; ii) the multiplicity of coordinate sys­
tems (the problem of the different reference systems
used in Colombia); and iii) incomplete information
about the location of samples. We followed the
approach of Eglington (2004) developing our own work­
flow to compile, filter and interpret all geochronological
data published between 1962 and 2021. Finally, the
structure of the database acts as a filter itself, if
a radiometric age does not contain an established set
of minimum information such as isotopic system, coor­
dinates, uncertainty and the lithology/mineral used for
performing radiometric dating, the data is discarded.
In the present contribution, we report all the available
U-Th-Pb, K-Ar, Ar-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, Fission-track, U-Th-
He, Lu-Hf, and Re-Os mineral and whole-rock data
reported in the published literature until January 2021
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 7
(Figure 4; Table S1). It is important to note that we
ignored other radiometric dating like radiocarbon (C14)
because of their low spectral age ranges. We include
a series of KDE´s which summarize the date spectra of
Colombia. The KDE´s were built using an open-source
python 3.6 application developed for the purposes of
this work (Rodriguez-Corcho, 2021; 10.5281/
zenodo.5060384), which python source code is freely
available at an online GitHub repository at the link:
https://bit.ly/38ARmlG. Additionally, an installable ver­
sion of the histograms app is available for Mac and
Windows to be downloaded https://bit.ly/3bK1RoQ.
This installable version was generated by using the fbs
module, which is freely available online: https://bit.ly/
38GgCXL for academic and non-commercial purposes.
We present three types of KDE´s for each date interval
of the geological history of Colombia: i) U-Pb dating of
magmatic zircons; ii) U-Pb dating of detrital zircons, and
iii) 40Ar-39Ar, U-Th/He and Fission track dates performed
on whole-rock and minerals, which include cooling and
low-temperature events. Because of the lower amount
of available data, we excluded from the comparison KDE
´s the K-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, Re-Os and 40Ar-39Ar meta­
morphic dates. A list of lithological units was also
added to the database, which can be found in supple­
mentary Table S2. In addition, a list with all samples in
the database is available in the supplementary Table S3.
The database will be maintained and extended by incor­
porating new geochronological data in a routine way.
Updates of the database are available on the website of
the CGD: www.colombiangeochrondatabase.uni-kiel.de.
To report wrong entries and/or missing references as
well as any issue concerning the database contact the
authors by using the following email: geodatabaseco­
lombia@gmail.com or submit a ticket through the CGD
website. We encourage users to download an updated
version of the database, including the units and samples
tables, from the webpage.
3.1. Compilation workflow and filtering criteria of
radiometric ages
This database was constructed making an exhaustive
compilation of all material related to radiometric ages
in Colombia. This includes all published literature with
supplemental materials when available, B.Sc., M.Sc., and
Ph.D. thesis, printed journals before the advent of PDF
format files, and the published geochronological data­
base of the SGC (Servicio Geologico Colombiano;
Gómez-Tapias et al. 2015). After a comprehensive revi­
sion of the data we revised a total of 342 references from
1962 to January 2021 which include a total of 277 pub­
lished papers; 32 Bsc., Msc., and Ph.D. thesis; and 12
8 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
Figure 4. Location map of radiometric age determinations coloured by technique.
reports, catalogues and maps. In total, we compiled
radiometric data from 282 references in the database.
Twenty-one (21) references were discarded as they did
not meet the minimum quality criteria such as erroneous
coordinates and lack of geological information related to
the sample. Personal communications and conference
abstracts were not included here. Likewise, articles that
include reference data from other sources were com­
piled and checked to avoid data duplicates in the data­
base. In the case of duplicates, data was compiled from
the original reference available. In order to avoid dupli­
cate entries, we carefully checked data that comes from
BSc., MSc., and Ph.D. thesis because normally these data
are published a couple of years after the thesis publica­
tion. Furthermore, unit names were homogenized to
avoid duplicates, due to the large amount of available
informal unit names. Therefore, some original unit
names were changed to match the most common
name used for a specific unit. In cases where samples
contain sufficient information to be included in the
database (isotopic system, coordinates, uncertainty),
but the source lithological unit is not specified, we pro­
vided a name based on the lithology and the geographic
location of the sample.
The compilation process and the generation of the
geochronological database followed four chronological
steps: 1) an excel spreadsheet containing references
from 1962 to 2021 was generated. The entries were
then compared with the SGC database (Gómez-Tapias
et al. 2015) to make sure older references that were not

available online (1962–1980) were included in the data­
base; 2) References that were not available in digital
format were identified and the search for hard copies
(until found) was mostly made in the library of the SGC
but also in various university libraries; 3) all available
references in PDF format were compiled, including
printed references from the SGC library and the Revista
Geología Norandina (Colombian Geology Society) which
are only available through personal consultation; 4) KDE
(Kernel Density Estimate) plots were generated to inter­
pret the compiled radiometric data; in addition maps
were generated to show the distribution of these dates.
Most references published before the advent of the
GPS technology have some difficulties with the location
of samples that needed to be corrected. For this reason
we used the freeware software QGIS for georeferencing
maps from compiled and digitized PDF files in order to
correct sample coordinates. This approach was specifi­
cally used in cases where: i) the authors did not provide
the information about coordinates in the original paper
but provided a map, and ii) when plotting the coordi­
nates of the sample in a map the location is wrong or
corresponds to a different lithological unit. In cases
where any of these previous options were reliable, we
contacted the corresponding authors of the papers by
email asking for the missing information. Samples whose
authors failed to give precise information about samples
location were discarded from the database.
Alternatively, when authors could not be contacted, we
checked if records with missing coordinates were avail­
able in the SGC database; where coordinates coincide
with the lithological unit reported by the author, we
projected them to decimal degrees (WGS84) and
included them in our database. We adopted this
approach because many of the missing coordinates
were obtained from the database of the Servicio
Geológico Colombiano (SGC; Gómez-Tapias et al. 2015).
Gómez-Tapias et al. (2015) made an exhaustive work
directly contacting the authors to check with them for
the exact location in the field and in many cases geor­
eferencing the locations again.
In order to correct human introduced errors during
the compilation process, several random checks were
continuously performed to verify the introduction and
consistency of the data. We alphabetically arranged both
the age and error of all records in the database to
identify and remove data duplicates. Further, cleaning
of the database was ensured by a series of revisions
where the 27% of the compiled references were selected
randomly for a manual inspection of the compiled radio­
metric ages and geographical coordinates. Another
check consisted in plotting the collected data in
a Colombian map by age ranges (to reduce the density
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 9
of points), with the aim to review the locations given by
authors. Similarly, an additional non-human source of
error is the projection from local coordinate systems
such as the Colombian MAGNA-SIRGAS coordinate sys­
tem to geographic coordinates (WSG84). Specifically, we
noted that the use of the datum Bogotá, Bogota-
MAGNA, Este Central-MAGNA, Este Este-MAGNA, Oeste-
MAGNA, Oeste Oeste-MAGNA coordinate systems can
produce an error of ~500 m in some areas of the country.
We verified that after conversion to MAGNA-related
coordinate systems, the obtained coordinates can be
mapped into the lithological unit described by the
authors on the original references.
3.2. Analysis criteria
The analysis of radiometric ages in this database was
performed considering the following criteria: 1) Author
interpretation; 2) Rock type; 3) Analysed material (whole-
rock or single crystal) and its closure temperature (if
single crystal); and 4) Isotopic system.
Depending on the parameters presented above, ori­
ginal interpretations from compiled references were
kept, but as analytical techniques and precision/accu­
racy of radiometric dating improved with time, some
original interpretations were updated. Radiometric
ages obtained from U-Pb in zircons establish the ages
of crystallization/intrusion of igneous rocks. On the other
hand, a date obtained from detrital zircons from sedi­
mentary and metasedimentary rocks, which give us
information on the provenance of the mineral, were
considered as detrital components. However, low tem­
perature cooling dates in sedimentary and metasedi­
mentary rocks were considered as exhumation dates in
order to account for all available events of crustal defor­
mation. Low temperature cooling dates only were con­
sidered as detrital when obtained from modern
sediments. Therefore, some low-temperature cooling
dates could represent exhumation events which did
not occur in situ, so we strongly suggest users to account
for this when using the database . In contrast, radio­
metric ages from igneous and metamorphic rocks can
represent crystallization, cooling, exhumation and meta­
morphic ages, and the distinction between these possi­
bilities can be done considering both the isotopic
system and the mineral used to perform radiometric
dating.
U-Pb geochronologic analyses usually produce three
independent dates (i.e. 206Pb/238U, 207Pb/235U, and
207
Pb/206Pb). However, probability density functions are
unidimensional, and thus a choice has to be made
regarding the specific date (isotope ratio) that is used
as ‘best date’ for PDF (Probability density plots)/KDE
10 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
calculations. For the input in the database, we always
first took into account the interpretation provided by the
author. If the best age estimation was not provided, we
selected the 206Pb/207Pb age ratio for dates older than
1100 Ma, and the 206Pb/238U ratio for dates younger
(Black and Jagodzinski, 2003). Furthermore, we did not
perform any additional treatment to compiled U/Pb
dates, including filter parameters as normal or
reverse percent discordance and 206Pb/204Pb. The reason
for this is that most references containing U/Pb zircon
data do not include this information. Furthermore, the
KDE application does not apply any filter to input data.
3.3. Database structure and description of fields
The database is structured according to Eglington
(2004), and it is divided into two individual databases:
StratDB (Table S2) and DateView (Table S1 and Table S3).
Information about lithological units is stored in StratDB,
while information about samples and their associated
radiometric ages is stored in DateView. Both databases
are linked, so each unit includes a set of samples with
their own respective set of radiometric ages in eight
distinct isotopic systems: U-Pb, K-Ar, Ar-Ar, Fission tracks
(Apatite and Zircon), U-Th/He, Re-Os, Rb-Sr, and Sm-Nd.
In addition, the Lu-Hf system is included for some intru­
sive igneous bodies, and provides complementary infor­
mation about the nature/origin of the magmas that
originated them.
The hierarchical structure of StratDB/DateView pro­
vides a powerful interface for constructing queries, and
allows the user to extract information on specific units,
isotopic systems, age interpretations, tectonic domains,
and reference sources. This constitutes a framework for
regional geological interpretations with geochronologi­
cal, stratigraphic, structural, petrological and palaeogeo­
graphic implications.
The information collected from both, StratDB and
Dateview databases, was synthesized in Excel spread­
sheets available in the webpage from the University of
Saskatchewan Isotope Laboratory (StratDB: http://sil.
usask.ca/SDB_compilations.htm, DateView: http://sil.
usask.ca/DV_compilations.htm). The original spread­
sheets were slightly modified in order to make more
comprehensive the data collected from the literature,
and for simplifying the compilation process.
Modifications of these spreadsheets are as follows: i)
we assume a unique name for each radiometric age,
and merged the DateView fields ‘Record ID’, ‘Ref Num’,
‘Reference ID’, ‘Sample ID’ into a unique ‘Sample Name’
field, which use sub-numbers in the ‘SAMPLENAME_##’
format to group ages from samples with multiple data as
the case of detrital single-zircon dating using LA-ICP-MS;
ii) information contained in very specific fields of the
DateView database as ‘Other intercept’, ‘Other intercept
+95%’, ‘Other intercept −95%’ are summarized in the
‘Comment’ field, which include any kind of relevant
data as specific lithologies, alternative ages, or com­
ments about the measurement or the host sample; iii)
we remove the following fields from the StratDB data­
base ‘Approval status ID’, ‘RockClass ID’, ‘Setting ID’, ‘Age
Constraint Level ID’. In general, any sample in our data­
base includes a sample name, coordinates (WSG84), iso­
topic system, tectonic domain, comments and reference.
In addition, Table S2 includes the youngest and oldest
zircon dates and the stratigraphic age of sedimentary
and Volcano-sedimentary units.
3.3.1. StratDB database:
A unit stored in StratDB could represent an igneous
body (intrusive or extrusive), a metamorphic complex,
an uplifted basement massif, or a sedimentary unit.
Fields in the StratDB database include the youngest
and oldest zircon dates as well as the tectonic domain
in which it is contained. Additional information was
added about the isotopic system used to constrain the
age, alternative ages or tectonic events related to it, and
the stratigraphic age of sedimentary units. An Excel
spreadsheet containing all this information is provided
as a supplementary material (Table S2). Finally, a good
understanding of the distribution of magmatic belts will
also be useful for mineral exploration in order to better
constrain the extent of metallogenic provinces. Detailed
information about all lithological units considered in this
database are included in Table S2.
3.3.2. DateView database:
Samples stored in DateView include all relevant informa­
tion about the location and the characteristics of the
rocks and minerals used to perform radiometric dating.
Each sample in the database is represented by a unique
ID, which in most cases corresponds to the original name
given to the samples in their original source. Samples
presenting duplicated IDs and reporting ages in distinct
isotopic systems were treated independently, and their
IDs were modified to ensure uniqueness. Fields in
DateView include 1) the lithology of the sample; 2) the
unit in which it was collected; 3) the isotopic system; 4)
the material (mineral/whole rock) used for dating; 5) the
obtained age/uncertainty (1 and 2σ) and statistics (Mean
Standard Weighted Deviation, probability of fit, and
K-Ar, 40Ar-39Ar decay constants); 6) a geological interpre­
tation of each reported age; 7) the analytical approach
used to calculate the age from radiogenic data (e.g.
Isochrone, inverse isochrone, Concordia age); 8) the
technique used to measure the isotopic ratios; 9) the

tectonic domain which contain the sample; 10) the coor­
dinates in WSG84 (Latitude/Longitude in decimal
degrees) system; 11) the laboratory in which the dating
was performed; 12) and the reference in which data was
published including the year of publication. In the sup­
plementary material, we describe additional information
about the fields included in the database (File S1).
3.4. Probability density function (KDE and PDF)
plots
All compiled radiometric dates were processed through
the construction of multiple KDE plots. Histograms are
traditionally the statistical tool of choice to evaluate the
distribution of random variables. However, the displayed
distribution in a histogram could lead to misleading
interpretations as it depends on the number of bins
used to build the histogram, specially in multimodal
spectra as the geochronological record. In order to over­
come this issue, a continuous spectrum can be built by
using individual gaussians constructed for each date.
There are two kinds of probability density functions,
the probability density plot (PDP; individual gaussian
width using assigned data uncertainties) and the generic
kernel density estimation (KDE; using an arbitrary or
optimized bandwidth, but ignoring data uncertainties
assigned to each analysis). Both of these methods were
implemented in the application described above
(Python v.3.6), which enables an interactive way to dis­
play and compare age spectra from different sources. In
the case of the KDE plots, the user can either provide
a fixed bandwidth as input or use the automated band­
width detection algorithm of Botev et al. (2010), also
implemented in Python (https://github.com/John-
Hennig/KDE-diffusion). However, the convergence of
the Botev et al. (2010) algorithm is not guaranteed for
smaller datasets (<100 records), and detected band­
widths do not always lead to a geologically meaningful
visualization of age spectras. Furthermore, KDE plots use
a gaussian kernel for calculating the multimodal spec­
trum. The background colours presented in the KDE-PDP
plots generated by this application are implemented
according to the Geological Society of America time
scale chart (Walker et al. 2018). Because of the huge
amount of data available in the database (>1000 records;
Vermeesch 2012) reported density plots will be reported
using the KDE approach that uses a fixed bandwidth
(Bw) to account for data dispersion and uncertainty.
Using this approach and by implementing an algorithm
for automatic peak detection, we were able to provide
a peak (or date) for all major tectonic, igneous, meta­
morphic, cooling, and exhumation events present in the
geological record of Colombia. The peak detection
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 11
algorithm considers the maximum and minimum values
in a particular KDE plot and then calculates their mean
refer here as delta-.
A peak is detected when the difference between the
highest peak and a value in the KDE function is higher
than delta. The original script implemented in our
Python 3.6 application can be found in https://gist.
github.com/antiface/7177333 and is based on the peak­
dec script originally written for MATLAB.
The peak dates calculated using the KDE approach
are highly sensitive to the selected bandwidth. The rea­
son for this is that data dispersion is not the same for all
dates, and therefore an appropriate bandwidth selection
could obscure second or third order date peaks. In parti­
cular, data dispersion is found higher in older ages
(>200 Ma) than younger ages (<200 Ma) probably due
to Pb-loss (in the case of U-Pb ages). In the case of
bandwidths calculated using automated methods as
Bovet et al. (2010), we noted that age spectras are
often over/under smoothed when considering short
(<150 Ma) or large time (>1000 Ma) intervals, therefore
obscuring secondary and third order peaks. In order to
account for second and third order peaks, we steadily
increased the bandwidth – when required – from 0.8 to
8.8. The criteria for selecting the bandwidth in each one
of the six KDE´s is to test different values, starting from
0.8 and steadily increasing the steps by 0.4, until reach­
ing a spectrum that successfully clusters the input data
into geologically meaningful peaks to overcome data
dispersion. The selection of an optimum bandwidth for
each one of the KDE´s presented in this contribution and
the display of a continuous spectra from 0 to 2200 Ma,
allow us to avoid statistical artefacts -at the borders- and
the underestimation of date peaks that could record
tectonic, igneous, metamorphic, cooling, and exhuma­
tion events of relevance. Finally, all peaks that were
detected by our peak detection algorithm are presented
in the KDE´s, but we only discussed peaks that we could
relate to representative geological events.
4. Results and interpretation
This contribution presents a first-order summary of the
age spectra of the NW-branch of the South American
continent (Colombian territory), which spans from
Precambrian to present times (Figure 3). The following
section is organized in chronological order, describing the
location, name, and geological features of representative
lithological units from the distinct exposed domains in
Colombia. We display the time of regional magmatic,
metamorphic and cooling events recorded in igneous,
metamorphic (Figure 3) and sedimentary rocks (Table
S2) by using KDE plots. Figure 5 to Figure 11 show three
12 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.

(a)

(b)

Figure 5. (a) KDE plots for the Precambrian. Abbreviations, Bw: Band width; n: Number of samples within the interval. (b) Distribution
of Precambrian rocks in the Colombia territory, modified from Gómez et al. (2019). The cross in the map represents the coordinates 3º
S and 68º W. The time interval displayed in the shaded areas shows the peaks related to the labelled tectonic event.

vertically stacked panels: i) A KDE that displays all U-Pb
dates in igneous rocks; ii) A KDE that displays all U-Pb
detrital dates in sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks;
and iii) A KDE that displays all cooling dates (Ar-Ar, Fission
tracks, and U-Th/He), that are provided for constraining
the timing of magmatic, metamorphic and cooling-
exhumation events. The KDE with all U-Pb dates in detrital
zircons is presented in order to link lithological units to
their probable magmatic sources and account for mag­
matic and metamorphic events which might be not
recorded by zircon ages in igneous and metamorphic
rocks. Finally, the cooling dates KDE with all apatite and
zircon fission tracks, Ar-Ar, disturbed dates, and U-Th/He
cooling-exhumation dates in igneous and metamorphic
rocks is reported for constraining thermal events related
to arc magmatism or exhumation episodes.
Overall, there is good first-order agreement between
detrital zircon U-Pb signatures recovered in sedimentary
and metasedimentary sequences, and the magmatic/
metamorphic dates determined in the massifs in situ.
Interestingly, such agreement suggests that the feared
collection/sedimentological/selection biases in this
dataset, could be minor, as syn-tectonic deposits accu­
mulated in nearby basins. Nonetheless, magmatic/meta­
morphic date determinations are most probably biased
towards rock units containing important mineral
resources. In these cases, large exploration campaigns
have been executed (e.g. Leal-Mejía 2011) resulting in
a large amount of data compared to other units/regions.
Similarly, significant detrital zircon geochronology
efforts have been directed towards potential reservoir
rock by the oil industry (see review in Horton et al. 2020).
 INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 13

4.1 PRECAMBRIAN (PALEOPROTEROZOIC TO (Figure 5) presents a narrower dataset consisting of

MIDDLE MESOPROTEROZOIC) (2500–1300 Ma) one major peak at 1363 Ma which corresponds to the
cooling date of the anorogenic Parguaza Granite
Precambrian dates are found in all the geographic
(García et al. 2011). Older peaks than 1364 Ma repre­
domains of Colombia (Fig. S1), mostly as detrital zircon
sent a few (3) zircon U-Th/He dates found in the
components in sedimentary rocks or as inherited grains
Llanos basin (Carbonera, Guayabo, and Picacho Fms.).
within igneous rocks. Precambrian magmatic and meta­
morphic dates occur mainly in the east-southeast geo­
graphic domain (Guyana Shield; Figure 2) in the Mitú 4.2. MIDDLE MESOPROTEROZOIC TO EARLY
Complex (Figure 3), which contains three units: The Mitú NEOPROTEROZOIC (ORINOQUIAN-PUTUMAYO
monzogranite, the Pringamosa Granofels and the Yi OROGEN) (1300–900 Ma)
Gneiss (Rodríguez-García et al. 2011). Precambrian
The Orinoquian-Putumayo, Grenville and Sunsas oroge­
dates also appear in the Garzon Massif and in the
nies are considered to have evolved differently (Ibáñez-
Bucaramanga and San Lucas Gneisses (Ordóñez-
Mejía et al. 2011; Ibáñez-Mejía 2020). Their evolution has
Carmona et al. 2006).
been distinguished mainly due to timing and differences
The KDE of U-Pb zircon crystallization dates display
in metamorphic conditions (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011).
five well-defined peaks at: 1764, 1591, 1504, 1472, 1396
The spatial distribution of middle Mesoproterozoic –
and 1327 Ma (Figure 5), recorded along the basement of
early Neoproterozoic dates covers all geographic
the east-southeast geographic domain (Fig. S1). These
domains (Fig. S2), but are mostly distributed in the
dates are related to major and broad magmatic events
Eastern Cordillera and the Middle Magdalena Basin
associated with transient orogenic episodes. Ibáñez–
(Figure 2).
Mejía and Cordani (2020) delimited time ranges for
Rocks of these ages are represented by high- and low-
each magmatic episode which are consistent with the
grade metamorphic complexes in the Sierra Nevada de
peaks mentioned above: they referred to a middle to late
Santa Marta, Santander and Garzón Massifs (Figure 2, S2;
Paleoproterozoic event (1763 Ma) as the ‘Atapo Belt’, the
Restrepo-Pace et al. 1997; Ordóñez-Carmona et al. 2006;
early Mesoproterozoic (1591 and 1503 Ma) event as the
Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011) within units like Abejorral,
‘Vaupés Belt’, and the middle Mesoproterozoic event
Bucaramanga, Guapotón, Las Margaritas, Minas, San
(1396 Ma) as the emplacement of the anorogenic
Lucas Gneisses, the Garzón Group, La Miel Unit and
Parguaza Granite (Figure 3). Dates around the 1472 Ma
Zancudo Migmatites (Figure 3). Orinoquian-Grenvillian
peak had been proposed to be related to an initial pulse
detrital components are identified in Cenozoic to
of arc magmatism of the Putumayo Orogen (Ibáñez-
Precambrian formations in all the geographic domains,
Mejía et al. 2015; Ibáñez-Mejía and Cordani 2020). The
including the oceanic sourced Western Cordillera ter­
1396 and 1327 dates can also be related to the Guaviare
ranes (Figure 3, S2).
Complex (Amaya-Lopez et al. 2020). Various dates
The major peaks within the middle Mesoproterozoic –
greater than 1600 Ma in Mesoproterozoic rocks are con­
early Neoproterozoic dates in the U-Pb crystallization
sidered inherited components (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011),
KDE occur at 1130, 1015 and 907 Ma (Figure 5). The
which are not shown in this KDE as they are precisely
Garzón Massif has one of the greatest exposures of
interpreted in the database as xenocrystals instead of
rocks with these dates including the Guapotón and Las
crystallization ages.
Margaritas Gneisses (Cordani et al. 2005; Ibáñez-Mejía
Likewise, the zircon U-Pb detrital KDE (Figure 5)
et al. 2011, 2015), whereas farther north the Jojocinto
showed small peaks for older dates (2800–1900 Ma)
and San Lucas Gneisses, all together show major zircon
and major peaks at 1802, 1530 and 1324 Ma. The
crystallization dates at ca. 1.1 Ga. This period records the
combined whole-rock Nd, zircon U/Pb, Hf, and
main magmatic arc development of the Putumayo
O isotopic systematics data suggest that the prove­
Orogeny, where radiogenic melts were added from the
nance of the rocks associated to these peaks are
mantle wedge generating a progressive rejuvenation of
mostly sourced from the Rio Negro-Juruena province,
the arc crust according to zircon Lu-Hf whole-rock Sm-
located at the western part of the Amazonian craton
Nd isotopic data (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2015). Likewise, the
of Brazil and Colombia (Ibáñez–Mejía and Cordani
early Neoproterozoic crystallization dates (907 Ma) coin­
2020; Bonilla et al. 2021). Alternatively, isotopic data
cide with the remnants of the emplacement of igneous
also suggest cratonic domains of the Guaviare
bodies at the end of the Mesoproterozoic (Restrepo-
Complex as the source for these detrital zircon
Pace et al. 1997; Cardona et al. 2010a; Ibáñez-Mejía
dates (Ibáñez–Mejía and Cordani 2020; Amaya-Lopez
et al. 2015), including the Bucaramanga and San Lucas
et al. 2020). In addition, the cooling dates KDE
Gneisses.
14 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
In contrast, the majority of middle Mesoproterozoic –
early Neoproterozoic dates correspond to detrital com­
ponents in sedimentary formations in the Eastern
Cordillera and metamorphic units in the Central
Cordillera showing main peaks at 1178 and 1006 Ma
(Figure 5). Furthermore, similar dates are found in the
metasedimentary rocks of Vergel Granulite, Zancudo
Migmatites and Pital Migmatites which record stages of
the Putumayo Orogen (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2011). Cooling
dates (Figure 5) obtained from Las Margaritas Gneiss,
Vergel Granulite and Carbonera Fm, show significant
peaks at 972 and 925 Ma and minor peaks at 1192,
1120 and 1364 Ma.
The main crystallization, detrital, and cooling date
peaks are roughly coeval with the Grenville orogenic
event, showing possible thermal resetting of exhuma­
tion to shallow and colder crustal levels due to the
emplacement of igneous bodies in the region of the
Garzón Massif and the San Lucas Range at approximately
1.1 and 1 Ga (Restrepo-Pace et al. 1997; Ordóñez-
Carmona et al. 2006; Cardona et al. 2010a; Ibáñez-Mejía
et al. 2015).
4.3 NEOPROTEROZOIC (Middle Tonnian to
Ediacaran; 900–541 Ma)
Neoproterozoic U-Pb zircon dates (Fig. S3) appear
mostly in uplifted igneous-metamorphic massifs (i.e.
Garzón, Santander, Floresta, Quetame and La Macarena
Massifs and the San Lucas Range, Figure 2) and as detri­
tal components in most Colombian sedimentary basins
(Figure 2; Alvarez 1981; Ordóñez-Carmona et al. 2006;
Cordani et al. 2016; Mora et al. 2017a, Mora et al. 2017b).
U-Pb magmatic dates are more scattered and occur
mostly in the Caribbean geographic domain (Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM)), the Guajira basin
(Figure 2), the Central Cordillera (Quebradagrande
Complex and the San Lucas Range, Figures 2, Figure 3),
the Eastern Cordillera (Garzón, Santander, Floresta,
Quetame and La Macarena Massifs) and in the East-
Southeast domain (Guyana Shield; Figure 2, S3). These
dates come from metamorphic and igneous rocks where
the continental basement is exposed, such as the
Bucaramanga and San Lucas Gneisses and quartzites
and San José del Guaviare Nepheline Syenite, or in bur­
ied basement blocks, like the San Jorge depocentre
phyllites (Cordani et al. 2005; Cardona et al. 2010a).
The U-Pb KDE for crystallization dates (Figure 5)
shows a major peak at 608 Ma. This late
Neoproterozoic crystallization date (608 Ma) can be
related to intrusion of the San José del Guaviare
Nepheline Syenite (Figure 3; Arango Mejía et al. 2012).
The KDE for detrital U-Pb dates (Figure 5) exhibit one
peak at 541 Ma that might be related to detrital compo­
nents present in the San Jorge depocentre (Mora et al.
2017a) and a population between 800 and 1000 Ma due
to the erosion of Bucaramanga and San Lucas Gneisses
(Cordani et al. 2005; Cuadros et al. 2014).
Middle to late Neoproterozoic detrital dates (i.e. 700–
600 Ma) represent the date of detrital components in La
Guajira, the Middle-Magdalena and San Jacinto basins
(Figure 2) as well as in the Central and Eastern
Cordilleras, Cajamarca and Quebradagrande Complexes
and the San Lorenzo Schists (Figure 3; Table S2). The
provenance of these rocks is probably related to
Gondwanan sources and constrain the maximum date
of deposition of the detrital components (Cardona 2003;
Cordani et al. 2005; Cardona et al. 2006).
Both Grenvillian and Neoproterozoic dates are inter­
preted to represent metamorphic and igneous emplace­
ment events related to the final amalgamation and
fragmentation of the supercontinent Rodinia during
the late Precambrian (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2015). This is
evidenced especially by metamorphic rocks present in
massifs such as Garzón, Santander, Quetame and the
SNSM (Figure 2), which were part of a large collisional
belt probably related to the Brasiliano orogeny (Cordani
et al. 2005; Cardona et al. 2006; Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2015),
or in alkaline rocks such a those represented by the San
José del Guaviare Nepheline Syenite that have yield the
U-Pb crystallization dates between 577 and 608 Ma
(Brasiliano Orogeny; Arango Mejía et al. 2012; Muñoz
Rocha et al. 2019).
More complicated scenarios as those seen in other
segments on the Andes (Chew et al. 2008) including
older phases of extension, active margin, and the inter­
action with Neoproterozoic Appalachian terranes
remains to be explored.
The cooling dates KDE (Figure 5) display minor peaks
at 821, 693, and 552 Ma, found in sedimentary
sequences of the Eastern Cordillera and Llanos basin,
and are interpreted to represent the cooling history of
the sources (Amazon craton; Horton et al., 2010; Saylor
et al. 2012b; Odoh et al. 2019).
4.4 EARLY PALAEOZOIC (CAMBRIAN TO SILURIAN;
541-419 Ma)
Early Palaeozoic magmatic and metamorphic dates
(541–419 Ma) in Colombia are mainly distributed in the
middle/northern portion of the Cordilleras geographic
domains, especially in the Eastern Cordillera (Figure 2,
S4). From south to north, the early Palaeozoic rocks of
the Eastern Cordillera are represented by the Garzón,
Quetame, Floresta, and Santander Massifs (Figure 2).
Although these massifs span in age from Precambrian
 INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 15

(Santander) to middle Palaeozoic (Quetame and
Floresta) (Restrepo-Pace 1995; Restrepo-Pace et al.
1997; Van der Lelij 2013), they are intruded by early
Palaeozoic igneous rocks (e.g. Berlin Orthogneiss), and
overlain in other cases by mid to upper Palaeozoic rocks
(Restrepo-Pace 1995; Restrepo-Pace et al. 1997; Van der
Lelij 2013). Although this domain contains most of the
early Palaeozoic magmatic and metamorphic rocks, early
Palaeozoic detrital components can be found in lesser
proportions to the north in the Caribbean, and to the
east in the Central and Western Cordillera geographic
domains (Fig. S4).
The KDE for U-Pb crystallization dates shows main
peaks at 480, 459 and 442 Ma (Figure 6). The 480 and
459 Ma peaks are related to an early Palaeozoic mag­
matic event related to the Taconic-Famatinian oro­
geny that resulted in the crystallization of igneous
bodies like the Berlin Orthogneiss (Mantilla Figueroa
et al. 2012; Van der Lelij 2013, p. 2016), which is
coeval with a metamorphic event interpreted to
represent the collision of a microcontinent with the
margin of South America (Moreno-Sanchez et al.
2020). In addition, the 442 Ma peak is related to
Ordovician to Silurian granitoids like the Otenga
Stock (Floresta Massif) that intrude the basement
rocks of the Eastern Cordillera (Cardona et al. 2006;
Horton et al. 2010b; Van der Lelij 2013; Bustamante
et al. 2017b).
On the other hand, the KDE for U-Pb detrital zircon
(Figure 6) shows a prominent peak at 538 Ma. Such peak
could be related to subduction and magmatism along
the western margin of Gondwana more widespread than
previously recognized (Thomas and Astini 1996; Dalziel
1997). This peak has no prominent equivalent in the
magmatic record suggesting either that the source
rocks were totally eroded or tectonically removed from

(a)

(b)

Figure 6. (a) KDE plots for the Palaeozoic (Cambrian-Carboniferous). (b) Distribution of Palaeozoic (Cambrian-Carboniferous) rocks in
the Colombia territory, modified from Gómez et al. (2019). All symbols and abbreviations as in Fig. 5; Z: Neoproterozoic; P: Permian.
The time interval displayed in the shaded area shows the peaks related to the labelled tectonic event.
16 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
this margin, leaving only their detrital fingerprint.
Another broad detrital peak at 465 Ma seems to average
out the better defined Taconic-Famatinian magmatic
peaks (480, 459, 442 Ma) related to a crustal melting
episode related to the collision of Laurentia and
Gondwana (Drake et al. 1989; Dalziel 1997; Van der Lelij
et al. 2016).
The cooling dates KDE (Figure 5) displays major peaks
at 475 and 444 Ma which are closely related to the 480
and 442 peaks observed in the magmatic KDE. This
suggests that these peaks most probably represent
rapid cooling of the syn-collisional magmatic episode
occurring during the Taconic-Famatinian orogeny
(480–442 Ma; Mantilla Figueroa et al. 2012; Van der
Lelij 2013, p. 2016).
4.5 MIDDLE TO LATE PALAEOZOIC (DEVONIAN TO
CARBONIFEROUS; 419-298 Ma)
Middle to late Palaeozoic (419–298 Ma) magmatic and
metamorphic dates can be found within the Central and
Eastern Cordillera geographic domains (Vinasco et al.
2006; Nova et al. 2019) (Figure 2, S5), e.g. La Miel unit
(Table S2, Central Cordillera) and the Floresta Formation
basement rocks (Table S2, Eastern Cordillera; Vinasco
et al. 2006; Villagómez et al. 2011a; Van der Lelij 2013,
p. 2016; Cardona et al. 2016; Leal-Mejía et al. 2019). Late
Palaeozoic dates are also found in the Caribbean geo­
graphic domain, with magmatic-metamorphic ages in
the Santa Marta Massif in the Rodadero Fm. (Figure 2,
Table S2; Cardona et al. 2010b). Middle to late Palaeozoic
magmatic-metamorphic dates (411–358 Ma; Figure 6)
are less abundant than early Palaeozoic ones (480–
443 Ma), but still represent relatively mild middle to
late Palaeozoic magmatic-metamorphic activity in
Colombia.
The KDE for U-Pb crystallization dates shows peaks
between 411, 395, 378, 358, and 352 Ma. The peaks
between 411 and 358 Ma which could represent a wide­
spread post-collisional magmatic event, probably
related to subduction-driven arc magmatism reported
in the Central Cordillera, the SNSM and the Santander
Massif. However, the origin and tectonic setting where
these magmatic units were formed remains poorly
understood and isotopic and geochemical studies must
be performed. The peak at 332 Ma can be related to the
San Jorge depocentre basement dates (Figure 6; Mora
et al. 2017b). These peaks have been interpreted to
reflect pulses of magmatism followed by a magmatic
event towards the end of the Palaeozoic, due to the
subduction of oceanic crust beneath the continent, dur­
ing the last stages of the amalgamation of Pangea
(Alleghanian orogeny, Restrepo-Pace 1992; Vinasco
et al. 2006; Mora et al. 2017b). The corresponding detrital
zircon peaks are similarly subdued, and widespread
mainly throughout the Caribbean, the Central and
Eastern Cordilleras and the main intermountain basins
(Figure 2). Within the error interval, the detrital KDE
shows a coincident peak at 327 Ma (Figure 6), very
similar to the beginning of the Late Mississippian-
Permian Alleghanian (Hatcher 1989; Osberg et al. 1989)
magmatic peak (332 Ma).
The cooling dates KDE (Figure 5) display major peaks
at 393, 353 and 332 Ma. These peaks are mostly found as
a small population of detrital zircon fission track dates in
sedimentary sequences of the Eastern Cordillera and the
Llanos basin.
4.6 PERMIAN TO TRIASSIC (298–201 Ma)
The Permian to Triassic dates distribution (298–201 Ma)
encompasses (Figure 2, S6) the culmination of the
Alleghanian orogeny and the subsequent break-up of
Pangea. Permian to Triassic U-Pb crystallization dates are
found around the Central Cordillera and are recorded in
the Abejorral Gneiss and related granites and the Aburra
Ophiolite (Figure 3; Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2020). In the
Eastern Cordillera geographic domain, Triassic dates
have been reported in the Santander Massif, Perija
Range (Van der Lelij et al. 2013; Rodriguez et al. 2017b;
Rodriguez et al. 2018) and in the Santa Marta Massif in
the Caribbean geographic domain (Figure 3). Similarly,
Permo-triassic dates can also be found in the Santa
Marta Massif (Piraquive et al. 2019; Quandt et al. 2018).
Rodriguez et al. (2020) have reported dates ~205–
200 Ma for some granitoids in the Santander Massif
including the Mogotes Batholith, La Corcova
Monzogranite, the Rionegro Monzogranite, the Santa
Barbara Monzogranite, the Alto de los Cacaos Rhyolite,
the San Joaquin Rhyolite and the Paramo Rico Tonalite.
The U-Pb magmatic crystallization KDE shows main
peaks at 275 and 237 Ma, almost identical to the
U-Pb detrital KDE with prominent peaks at 273 and
236 Ma, which are largely widespread around
Colombia in sedimentary sequences of the
Magdalena valley (Upper, Middle, Lower), the
Eastern Cordillera, the San Jacinto-Sinu deformed
belts, the Central Cordillera, and the SNSM
(Figure 7). The 275 Ma peak is often related to
S-type granites whose date is interpreted to represent
anatexis recording the amalgamation of the Pangea
supercontinent (Vinasco et al. 2006). The younger
237 Ma peak is related to generation of tholeiitic
magmatism in the Central Cordillera associated with
the break-up of Pangea (Pindell and Dewey 1982;
Vinasco et al. 2006; Cochrane et al. 2014a).
 INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 17

(a)

(b)

Figure 7. (a) KDE plots for the Permian to Triassic. (b) Distribution of Palaeozoic (Cambrian-Carboniferous) rocks in the Colombia
territory, modified from Gómez et al. (2019). All symbols and abbreviations as in Fig. 5. The time interval displayed in the shaded areas
shows the peaks related to the labelled tectonic event.

The cooling dates in this time interval have peaks at
290, 277, 263, 246, 236, 229, 218 and 213 Ma (Figure 7).
Peaks between 290 and 263 Ma are widely recorded in
sedimentary sequences of the Eastern Cordillera,
Santander Massif, and the Central Cordillera and repre­
sent high and low temperature cooling detrital events.
Older ages (236 Ma) may represent further cooling (Ar/
Ar) of amphibolites in the Central Cordillera, with the
246 Ma peak linked to detrital components (U/Th-He)
representing exhumation and transport of material
mainly from the Eastern Cordillera (Ramirez Arias et al.
4.7 JURASSIC (201–145 Ma)
20125). Some authors suggest that Ar-Ar dates from the
Cajamarca Complex (229 Ma) represent Triassic deforma­
tional episodes linked to a syntectonic magmatic event
(Vinasco and Cordani 2012). The younger dates maybe
associated with the break-up of Pangea, recording
exhumation cooling ages of granitoids bodies such as
the Horizontes Gneiss, El Buey Stock, Abejorral Gneiss
and the Cambumbia Stock, all of them in the Central
Cordillera geographic domain. Ar/Ar cooling dates from
anatectites (218–213 Ma) are also interpreted to evi­
dence exhumation cooling of continental crust during
Pangea disassembly, leading to margin cooling of
a Permo-Triassic belt during the Late Triassic (Cochrane
et al. 2014a).
The Jurassic rocks in Colombia have been widely
grouped by Bayona et al. (2020) in different tectonic
blocks that contain the complete or partial record of
the Early to Middle Jurassic magmatism emplaced in
18 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
(a)
(b)
Figure 8. (a) KDE plots for the Jurassic. (b) Distribution of Jurassic rocks in the Colombia territory, modified from Gómez-Tapias et al.
(2015). All symbols and abbreviations as in Fig. 5. The time interval displayed in the shaded area shows the peaks related to the
labelled tectonic event.
either Permo-Triassic or Putumayo-type basements.
These sequences also contain a variation in the volcano
sedimentary record either indicating a marine transgres­
sion by the opening of the proto-Caribbean, or the
volcanic product of the magmatic arc deposited in
a back-arc domain, both with an important unconfor­
mity in the Middle Jurassic when magmatic activity
became more localized.
Jurassic U-Pb dates (201–145 Ma) are found in all
geographic domains (Figure 2, S7). The main U-Pb crys­
tallization data is constrained to the Early Jurassic with
major peaks at 198 and 186 Ma (Figure 8). Dates related
to the 198 Ma peak are mainly associated to Jurassic
igneous complexes in the Central Cordillera and intru­
sions in the Santa Marta and Santander Massifs, in the
Caribbean geographic domain and the northern seg­
ment of the Eastern Cordillera (Leal-Mejía et al. 2011;
Villagómez et al. 2011a; Mantilla-Figueroa et al. 2013;
Van der Lelij et al. 2013; Spikings et al. 2014; Quandt
et al. 2018; Correa-Martínez et al. 2019). Dates related to
the 186 Ma peak have been associated to the Mocoa,
Ibagué and Segovia Batholiths, Anchique, Paez, and Las
Minas monzogranite, El Cuatro Stock, and from the
Jurassic igneous rocks of the San Lucas Range
(Bustamante et al. 2010, 2016; Leal-Mejía 2011;
Villagómez et al. 2011b; Cochrane et al. 2014a, 2014b;
Zapata et al. 2016; Rodriguez et al. 2018). Previous work
suggests the Upper Magdalena Valley (Eastern Cordillera
domain) Jurassic plutonic rocks to be configured in
elongated tectonomagmatic belts that have the overall
U-Pb Jurassic plutonic age record from 193 to 167 Ma
(Rodriguez et al. 2018). Similarly, continuous Jurassic arc
magmatism is recorded in the Santa Marta Massif
(Caribbean geographic domain) in volcanic and volcani­
clastic Jurassic rocks between 191 and 167 Ma (Ramírez
et al. 2020). These events of magmatism can be related

to the minor 181 and 176 Ma peaks observed in the
crystallization KDE (Figure 8). Towards the Middle
Jurassic the frequency of Jurassic dates decreased with
a peak at 164 Ma, which is probably related to Payandé
Stock, with inputs from the Ibagué and Segovia
Batholiths as well as the Saldaña Formation (Figures 8,
Figure 3, Table S2; Villagómez et al. 2011a; Cochrane
et al. 2013; Mantilla-Figueroa et al. 2013; Spikings et al.
2014; Bustamante et al. 2016). The minor 162 Ma and
155 Ma peaks record a second episode of arc magma­
tism in the Jurassic between 162 and 156 Ma localized in
the Upper Magdalena Valley (Villagómez et al. 2011a).
Detrital U-Pb Jurassic dates exhibit peaks that corre­
spond very well to crystallization data summarized
above. Major peaks at 185 and 156 Ma (Figure 8), and
their components are mainly found within the Eastern
Cordillera and the Caribbean geographic domains, and
are less frequent in the Central and Western Cordilleras,
reflecting major sedimentation stages pre- and post-
tectonic changes related to the opening of the Proto-
Caribbean sea (Cardona et al. 2010b, p. 2011; Mantilla-
Figueroa et al. 2011, p. 2013; Caballero et al. 2013b;
Horton et al. 2015; Anderson et al. 2016; Piraquive
Bermúdez 2017). Interestingly, the 198 Ma peak in the
crystallization KDE is less pronounced in the detrital KDE,
perhaps related to a single possible source (Bayona et al.
2010a). Minor peaks observed between 185–178 Ma and
169–155 Ma suggest that the two episodes of arc mag­
matism reported for the Jurassic define a continuous
crustal production.
Five main peaks can be observed in the KDE of Ar-Ar,
U-Th/He and fission track. Ar-Ar data obtained in the
Jurassic interval indicate two major events of regional
metamorphism in two different Jurassic units. The first is
a widespread regional metamorphic overprint event on
the late Palaeozoic-early Mesozoic rocks of the
Santander Massif due to a thinning of the continental
crust during the Jurassic at 195–184 Ma (Restrepo-Pace
1995). The second is a collisional event recorded in
metapelites of the Cajamarca Complex in the central
segment of the Central Cordillera, which indicates peak
metamorphism at 154–147 Ma (Blanco-Quintero et al.
2014). Cooling dates associated with the major peak at
199 Ma are related to cooling of the Bucaramanga
Gneiss and Santa Barbara Batholith (Figures 2, Figure 3,
Figure 8) (Goldsmith et al. 1971; Ward et al. 1973), other
data corresponding to this date has been interpreted as
exhumation events (e.g. Silgara Fm; Van der Lelij et al.
2013). Vinasco and Cordani (2012) also document Ar-Ar
Jurassic dates of the Cajamarca Complex around
~189 Ma, which are interpreted as deformational epi­
sodes. Peaks at 188 and 179 Ma represent cooling events
from igneous bodies intruding basement rocks from the
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 19
Garzón, Santa Marta and Santander Massifs (Figure 8),
defining a Late Triassic-Middle Jurassic plutonic arc
(Restrepo-Pace et al. 1997; Cardona et al. 2006) as well
as cooling events in the Ibagué Batholith (Villagómez
et al. 2011a). An exhumation event within the Guyana
Shield at ca. 172 Ma (Caño Viejita gabbro; Figure 3), point
out to an intraplate rifting event (Bonilla et al. 2020). The
peak at 166 Ma can be related to the Jurassic rocks of the
SNSM, the Perija Range, and to complexes at the south­
ern segment of the Eastern Cordillera, such as the Mocoa
Igneous Complex and the Garzón Granulitic Group
(Figure 8) (Tschanz et al. 1974; Van der Lelij et al. 2013;
Mora et al. 2015). The last two peaks of 154 and 145 Ma
represent low-temperature events in the Central
Cordillera (Ibagué region) and late exhumation events
of the complexes around the Santander Massif (Figure 8)
(McCourt et al. 1984; Cordani et al. 2005; Parra et al. 2009;
Bayona et al. 2010; Spikings et al. 2015; Amaya Ferreira
et al. 2016).
4.8 EARLY CRETACEOUS (145–100 Ma)
Early Cretaceous dates occur mainly east of the Romeral
paleo-suture which separates terranes with oceanic (to
the west) and continental (to the east) affinities (Fig. S8).
To the east, the data is primarily distributed in the
Eastern and Central Cordilleras and the Caribbean geo­
graphic domains, but no Early Cretaceous dates have
been identified in the eastern-southern (Guiana Shield)
geographic domain. The U/Pb magmatic crystallization
KDE (Figure 9) displays four main peaks at 143, 133 (the
highest), 119, 112 and 101 Ma. Most of this magmatic
record is found in the Central Cordillera corresponding
to Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous magmatic pulses. The
Early Cretaceous dates are represented by the Ibagué
Batholith and the Mariquita Stock (peaks at 143 and
133 Ma; see Villagómez et al. 2011a; Bustamante et al.
2016); and the Samaná Alaskite and Samaná Igneous
Complex (see Rueda-Gutiérrez 2019), including also
oceanic-sourced rocks on the western flank of the CC,
such as the Quebradagrande Complex and West
Abejorral Fm volcanics (the younger peak at 112 Ma;
Figure 3, Table S2; Villagómez et al. 2011a; Spikings
et al. 2014; Cochrane et al. 2014b; Jaramillo et al. 2017a;
Zapata et al. 2019). The younger peak (101 Ma) is related
to the crystallization of the Buritica Tonalite, lavas of the
Quebradagrande Complex and volcanic rocks of the
Upper Abejorral Fm (Weber et al. 2015; Zapata 2015).
Oceanic sourced volcanic and plutonic rocks documen­
ted in the Quebradagrande Complex and the Upper
Abejorral Fm. volcanics have been interpreted to repre­
sent an accreted island arc (Villagómez et al. 2011a) or
a continental tholeithic arc emplaced on thinned
20 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
(a)
Figure 9. (a) KDE plots for the Cretaceous. (b) Distribution of Cretaceous rocks in the Colombia territory, modified from Gómez-Tapias
et al. (2015). All symbols and abbreviations as in Fig. 5; Pg: Palaeogene. The time interval displayed in the shaded areas shows the
peaks related to the labelled tectonic event.
continental crust in a back-arc extension setting
(Jaramillo et al., 2017). Moreover, the emplacement of
the Buritica Tonalite at ~100 Ma has been interpreted to
mark the onset of subduction initiation of the proto-
Caribbean Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate (Weber
et al. 2015). Other Early Cretaceous magmatic events
also appear in the Eastern Cordillera, the Santander
Massif and in the Caribbean geographic domain (Santa
Marta Massif; Figure 2; Vásquez et al. 2010; Spikings et al.
2015; Weber et al. 2015).
Detrital zircon dates occur mainly in basins of the
Eastern Cordillera, Middle Magdalena Valley, in the wes­
tern flank of the Central Cordillera and the Caribbean
geographic domains (Figure 2, S8). U-Pb Detrital KDE
minor peaks at 144, 138, 126, 116 and 108 Ma
(Figure 9) are masked by abundant records of Late
Cretaceous events, and seem closely related to the crys­
tallization dates discussed above including the Ibagué
(b)
Batholith, the Mariquita Stock, as well as the Buriticá
Tonalite and rocks from the Quebradagrande Complex,
respectively. All these dates are recorded in sedimentary
units with western sources such as the Upper Abejorral,
Esmeraldas, Bogotá and Neiva Member.
Thermochronology cooling dates are scattered in the
eastern flank of the Central Cordillera and in the Eastern
Cordillera (Fig. S8). The cooling dates KDE shows a clear
bimodal distribution with two distinctive peaks at 137
and 106 Ma (Figure 9). According to our database, these
events are related to an Early Cretaceous cooling event
found in the Santander and Garzón Massifs in the
Eastern Cordillera as well as in the Ibagué Batholith
and part of the Cajamarca Complex in the eastern flank
of the Central Cordillera. Note that the 106 and 137
peaks are just slightly younger than two of the most
prominent peaks in the magmatic zircon KDE (143 and
112 Ma; Figure 9), suggesting rapid cooling following

crystallization, that can be related to the thermal evolu­
tion of the extensional dominated tectonics that char­
acterized the Northern Andes during Early Cretaceous
times (Zapata et al. 2019, 2020).
4.9 LATE CRETACEOUS (100–66 Ma)
The Late Cretaceous magmatic record is represented in
the Central and Western Cordilleras and the Caribbean
geographic domains mainly in the Santa Marta,
Antioquia, Buga and Sabanalarga Batholiths, volcanic
rocks of the Bolivar Ultramafic Complex, Cañasgordas,
Dagua and Diabasic Groups, Baudó Range, Darien
Massif, Quebradagrande Complex, Abejorral Fm and
Buritica Tonalite (Figures 2, Figure 3, S9). The U-Pb mag­
matic KDE (Figure 9) shows four well-defined peaks at
91, 84, 80, 74 and 70 Ma. The peak at 91 Ma represents
the spread of ages of crystallization and intrusion of the
Antioquia and Buga Batholiths and other minor plutons
from the Central Cordillera. This peak has been related to
two different magmatism events: i) on one side to the
formation of a Late Cretaceous arc due to the subduc­
tion of the proto-Caribbean Plate beneath the South
American Plate and South American terranes
(Quebradagrande Complex and Antioquia Batholith;
Spikings et al. 2010; Villagómez et al. 2011a; Spikings
2013; Zapata-Villada et al. 2017), ii) and on the other to
intra-oceanic arc magmatism generated by the subduc­
tion of a proto-Caribbean lithosphere beneath the ocea­
nic plateau (Buga Batholith; Wright and Wyld 2011;
Villagómez et al. 2011a; Montes et al. 2019). The peaks
between 84 and 80 Ma represent the crystallization of
volcanic rocks that belong to the para-autochthonous
Quebradagrande Complex and Magangué Pluton. In the
same way, the peaks at 74 and 70 Ma correspond to the
crystallization of Late Cretaceous plutons and dikes
located in the Central Cordillera, Lower and Middle
Magdalena Valley as well as the granites and diorites
from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Cardona et al.
2011a; Jaramillo et al. 2017; Piraquive Bermúdez 2017).
Most zircon U-Pb detrital dates come from the Eastern
Cordillera geographic domain as well as sedimentary
basins like the Amaga-Cauca-Patia, Tumaco, San
Jacinto and Magdalena. Peaks of the detrital KDE at 87,
84 and 74 Ma (Figure 9) are correlated to sources from
Central Cordillera accumulated in the Amaga, Bogotá,
Mugrosa and Esmeralda Fm. (Ramirez et al. 2006; Bayona
et al. 2013; Caballero et al. 2013). The peak at 74 Ma is
dominant in the San Jacinto and Amaga Fm sediments
(Cardona et al. 2012; Mora et al. 2017; Lara et al. 2018)
related to a collided intra oceanic arc, later collapsed
(Cardona et al. 2012). This mismatch between the Late
Cretaceous magmatic and detrital peaks at 91 Ma and
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 21
70 Ma (Figure 9) could be related to the post-accretional
foundering of the Upper Cretaceous Cabo de la Vela
colliding intra-oceanic arc (Weber et al. 2009). Collision,
accretion, erosion, and collapse of the arc, would leave
a marked detrital signature representing the date of the
colliding arc, unmatched to existing rock units.
The record of exhumation and cooling dates is
exposed predominantly in the Eastern and Central
Cordillera geographic domains, but also with important
presence in the Baudó Range, Gorgona and Gorgonilla
Islands of the Western Cordillera geographic domain
(Fig. S9; Barrero 1979; Ordoñez-Carmona et al. 2003;
Weber et al. 2015). Eventually, the age and geochemical
data obtained in the Western Cordillera geographic
domain, directly link the Galápagos hotspot tracks in
the Pacific to the lithosphere to the CLIP. The cooling
dates KDE (Figure 9) shows a prominent peak at 66 Ma
which corresponds to a large analytical database of
spherulites dated from Gorgonilla Island related to the
Chicxulub impact (Renne et al. 2018). It also records both
an exhumation and a cooling event of the Antioquia
Batholith and exhumation data of the Bolivar
Ultramafic Complex. Older peaks at ca. 89 and 72 Ma
are also very important but are masked by the amount of
Ar-Ar data from Gorgonilla. These peaks are present in
Gorgona, Bolivar Ultramafic Complex, Diabasic Group
and western part of Central Cordillera (89 Ma) and the
Baudó Range (72 Ma). These dates, mostly interpreted as
cooling dates, have been related to the collision of the
CLIP, which occurred after 80 Ma with the northwestern
South America margin (Villagómez and Spikings 2013).
Even though the database does not show any evidence
of a cooling event in the latest Cretaceous, Cardona et al.
(2020 and references therein) suggests a change in the
tectonic regime from extensional to compressional,
which is not related to the collision of the CLIP and
related intra-oceanic arcs.
Although our KDE does not include crystallization
dates apart from the U/Pb system, it is important to
remark that this database contains 40Ar/39Ar dates that
record magmatic activity from gabbros and basalts in
Gorgona, between 98 and 86 Ma, and Gorgonilla, which
gave an date of 64 Ma (Serrano et al. 2011). These
gabbros and basalts exposures in Gorgona and
Gorgonilla represent the youngest komatiite exposure
in the world.
4.10 PALAEOCENE – MIDDLE EOCENE (66–45 Ma)
Most radiometric magmatic dates during this period are
concentrated in the Eastern and Central Cordilleras geo­
graphic domains, while the Western Cordillera geo­
graphic domain has the lowest data density (Fig. S10).
22 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
(a)
Figure 10. (a) KDE plots for the Cenozoic. (b) Distribution of Cenozoic rocks and sediments in the Colombia territory, modified from
Gómez-Tapias et al. (2015). All symbols and abbreviations as in Fig. 5. The time interval displayed in the shaded areas shows the peaks
related to the labelled tectonic event.
Crystallization dates are predominant in the Caribbean
geographic domain, specifically in the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta and in the centre of the Central Cordillera
(Figure 2, S10). Interaction between the Caribbean and
the South American Plates, where the Caribbean Plate
subducted beneath the South American margin, pro­
duced a short-lived magmatism during the Palaeocene
(Ordoñez-Carmona and Pimentel 2001; Duque 2009;
Leal-Mejía 2011; Cardona et al. 2011a, 2011b, 2014;
Bayona et al. 2012; Cochrane 2013; Montes et al. 2015;
Piraquive Bermúdez 2017; Bustamante et al. 2017b). The
U-Pb crystallization KDE (Figure 10) shows a peak at
59 Ma associated with this event, which mainly corre­
sponds to dates reported in Santa Marta (Caribbean
domain) and Sonsón Batholiths, Manizales Pluton and
Hatillo Stock (Central Cordillera; Figure 3). In addition,
the peak at 54 Ma (Figure 10) is also associated with this
(b)
event, mainly located in the Santa Marta Batholith and
Parashi Stocks in the Caribbean domain, and Hatillo, El
Bosque, and Sevilla Stocks in the Central Cordillera
domain (Figure 3).
Farther south, close to the Ecuador border, the
Timbiqui complex includes the youngest record of mid­
dle Eocene magmatism (Barbosa-Espitia et al. 2019;
Grajales et al. 2020). Tapering magmatic activity during
the middle Eocene (Figure 10) has been related to the
arrival of thickened Caribbean Plate at the trench, arrest­
ing subduction (Cardona et al. 2011b; Bayona et al. 2012;
Montes et al. 2015; Bustamante et al. 2017b).
U-Pb detrital dates (Figure 10) are mostly concen­
trated in the Eastern Cordillera, in the Sinú – San
Jacinto Belt, Cesar – Ranchería Basin and the Middle
and Upper Magdalena Basin (Figure 2, S10), and the
southern Llanos basin (Bayona et al. 2012; Caballero

Figure 11. U-Pb magmatic and detrital KDE of Colombia and U-Pb detrital KDE’s of North America (Laurentia sourced) and the world.
Main tectonic events are pointed: abbreviations, cvia: Cabo de la Vela intra-oceanic arc; rsp: Rifting-subduction related magmatism
associated to Pangea break up. All symbols and abbreviations as in Fig. 5.
et al. 2020). The most prominent peak within the detrital
KDE is at 59 Ma, suggesting that the magmatic sources
of the northern Central Cordillera-Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta contributed significantly to the detrital com­
ponents of the Bogotá, Cuervos and Socha Mudstone
Fms (Figure 2, Table S2; Ayala-Calvo et al. 2009; Bayona
et al. 2010b, Bayona et al. 2012, Bayona et al. 2013; Saylor
et al. 2011, Saylor et al. 2012a, Saylor et al. 2012b; Reyes-
Harker et al. 2015).
The cooling dates KDE (Figure 10) shows a peak at
53 Ma which can be mostly associated to the exhuma­
tion of the Antioquia Batholith and the Cajamarca
Complex. This peak reflects the initial phases of exhuma­
tion and cooling of the Northern Andean orogeny as
a result of the accretion of the CLIP (and related island
arcs; Montes et al. 2019) to the South American Plate
during Late Cretaceous times (Restrepo-Moreno et al.
2009; Villagómez 2010; Villagómez and Spikings 2013;
Noriega-Londoño et al. 2020).
4.11 MIDDLE EOCENE-EARLY OLIGOCENE (45-
30 Ma)
Dates between the middle Eocene and the early
Oligocene (~45–30 Ma) appear in the Western, Central
and Eastern Cordilleras, and the Caribbean geographic
domains (Figure 2, S11). Most compiled data are
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 23
reported as detrital components in the main sedimen­
tary basins of the Magdalena Valley and crystallization
dates in some allochthonous terranes such as the
Panama intra-oceanic arc (Montes et al. 2015; Leon
et al. 2018) (Figure 2).
The KDE of zircon U-Pb crystallization dates
(Figure 10) shows a peak at 43 Ma. The volcaniclastic
Cruces Fm. (León et al. 2018) and the Mandé Batholith
contain crystallization dates related to this peak, both
within the allochthonous Panama arc as a result of the
Farallon Plate subduction beneath the Panama intra-
oceanic arc (Figure 3; Table S2; Duque et al. 2009;
Montes et al. 2012, Montes et al. 2015; Leal-Mejía 2011;
Piraquive Bermúdez 2017). Furthermore, a magmatic
quiescence in the northern Andes is noted between
~30 and 40 Ma as proposed by previous work (Bayona
et al. 2012).
The detrital zircon U-Pb KDE (Figure 10) shows a peak
at 41 Ma. This peak is similar to the peak in the magmatic
KDE, suggesting that sedimentary sequences such as the
Honda Group and the Real Fm. in the Upper and Middle
Magdalena Basin (Figure 2; Caballero et al. 2013a;
Anderson et al. 2016) were sourced by a middle Eocene
magmatism related to the accreted intra-oceanic
Panama arc in the Western Cordillera domain. Though
the 41 Ma is the only observed peak, middle Miocene
units such as Amaga Fm. (Central Cordillera domain),
24 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
Honda Group located in the Upper Magdalena Basin
(Eastern Cordillera domain) and the Sierra and Esmita
Fms. located in the Tumaco Basin (Western Cordillera
domain) report dates in the ~40-30 Ma interval that
can be related to the Mande Batholith (Montes et al.
2015; Anderson et al. 2016; Echeverri et al. 2015; Table
S2). Detrital components of this age interval are not
found in strata older than middle Miocene as suggested
by previous work (Montes et al. 2015).
The cooling dates KDE (Figure 10) shows three main
peaks at 45, 41 and 34 Ma for the Piedrancha pluton and
Mande Batholith in the Western Cordillera domain, the
Santa Marta Batholith in the SNSM, and in the Cajamarca
complex and Sonson, Ibagué, Antioquia Batholiths in the
Central Cordillera domain (Figure 3; Cardona et al.
2011b; Villagómez and Spikings 2013). These peaks can
be related to the exhumation of the Central and Western
Cordilleras, and are similar to the ones registered with
the magmatic and detrital KDE. For the Caribbean geo­
graphic domain, more specifically in the SNSM, these
peaks may represent the exhumation of Jurassic intru­
sive bodies such as Palaeozoic units (Los Muchachitos
Gneiss; Piraquive Bermúdez 2017), Precambrian gneisses
(Villagómez et al. 2011b), and cooling of the Santa Marta
Batholith (Figure 3; Duque et al. 2009). Furthermore,
these middle Eocene peaks may have documented
a variation in the rate of the convergence between the
Caribbean and the South American Plates (Duque 2009;
Restrepo-Moreno et al. 2009; Villagomez 2010).
4.12 LATE OLIGOCENE TO PLIOCENE-EARLY
PLEISTOCENE (30–0 Ma)
Most crystallization dates during the late Oligocene to
Present times are found in the Central and south of the
Western Cordilleras domains and in the Cauca-Patía val­
ley (Figure 2, S12). Three prominent peaks are observed
in the U-Pb crystallization KDE at 23, 15, 8 and 0.9 Ma
(Figure 10). The oldest peak at 23 Ma is related to the
Piedrancha Granodiorite and Anchicayá Batholith
(Figure 3), this date has been associated with the break-
up of the Farallon Plate into Cocos and Nazca Plates that
triggered subduction-related magmatism (Botero 1975;
Brook 1984; Echeverri et al. 2015). The 15 and 8 Ma peaks
highlight crystallization dates of the Combia Volcanic
Complex and the Yamuralito Porphyry (Figure 3), and it
has been suggested that this magmatism was triggered
by changes in the angle of the subducting slab of the
young oceanic Nazca Plate beneath the South American
Plate (Henrichs 2013; Jaramillo et al. 2019). El Cuatro
Stock and Igneous Bodies Vetas California (Figure 3) in
the Santander Massif (Figure 2) also contribute to the 15
and 8 Ma peaks, indicating magmatism associated with
the interaction between the Caribbean and South
American Plates (Mantilla-Figueroa et al. 2009, 2011).
The peak at 1 Ma is linked to arc magmatism in the
Central Cordillera recorded in magmatic bodies as the
Rio Dulce Porphyry suite unit (Leal-Mejía 2011). Leal-
Mejía (2011) geochronological data show NE migration
of this volcanism with dates spanning from 2.4 to 0.4 Ma.
Magmatism around this time is also documented in the
Iza-Paipa area of the Eastern Cordillera domain; however,
they do not contribute to the U-Pb crystallization KDE
since they are Ar-Ar and Fission track crystallization
dates (Pardo 2004; Bernet et al. 2016).
Detrital dates are mostly concentrated in the south­
ern Tumaco and the Cauca-Patía basins of the Western
Cordillera domain, in the Caribbean geographic domain,
and in the Upper and Middle Magdalena Basins
(Figure 2, S12). Detrital components of the Esmita, San
Agustín, and Sierra Fms. (Table S2) contribute signifi­
cantly to the 24 Ma peak in the U-Pb detrital KDE
(Figure 10). Otherwise, dates associated with the 13 Ma
peak can be found in the Chagüi, Galeón, Cajascal, La
Victoria and Angostura Formations (Table S2). Detrital
dates related to the 8 and 1 Ma dates peaks are recorded
in the components of the Tumaco Basin (recent depos­
its), Mercaderes, and San Agustín Formations (Figure 10;
Table S2). The provenance of these units is mainly from
the Central (Rio Dulce porphyry suite) and Western
Cordilleras, reflecting depositional dates of some units
close to the Miocene magmatic arc (between 24 and
13 Ma; Figure 10) and also recording the Pleistocene-
present day magmatic arc of the Central Cordillera (Leal-
Mejía 2011; Echeverri et al. 2015; Anderson et al. 2016;
León et al. 2018).
Cooling dates are widespread in the Central and
Eastern Cordillera domains, in the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta (SNSM) and in the Garzón Massif (Figure 2,
S12). The main peaks in the cooling KDE are at 22, 10 and
5 Ma (Figure 10). Although a peak ~22 Ma is not dis­
played in the cooling dates KDE, a population around
this time can be related to the exhumation of the Santa
Marta Batholith. This episode of regional exhumation
has been associated with changes in subduction conver­
gence rates between the Caribbean and South American
Plates (Villagómez et al. 2010, Villagómez et al. 2011b;
Cardona et al. 2011b).
The peak at 10 Ma is mainly related to cooling and
exhumation of the Garzon Group (Van der Wiel 1991)
and the Guadalupe Formation (Figure 3, Table S2; Parra
et al. 2009; Mora et al. 2010; Ramírez et al. 2012). The
peak at 5 Ma is related to exhumation of the Une
Formation (Parra et al. 2009; Mora et al. 2010; Ramírez
et al. 2012). The general trend for the middle Miocene
peaks mentioned above is mainly associated with

protracted cooling, interpreted as the diachronous exhu­
mation of the double-verging fold and thrust belt that
constitutes the Eastern Cordillera (Mora et al. 2006, 2008;
Parra et al. 2009; Horton et al. 2010a, 2010b; Caballero
et al. 2013a; Reyes-Harker et al. 2015).
5. Comparison of Colombian and Global
database
The comparison of the Colombian (Gondwana sourced)
geochronological database with the Global and North
American (Laurentia sourced) U-Pb detrital zircon data­
bases of Condie et al. 2017; Puetz 2018; Puetz et al. 2018;
Condie and Puetz 2019,; Puetz and Condie 2019
(Figure 11) provides a temporal constraint on the evolu­
tion of the South American continent as some zircon
peaks in Colombia have been interpreted to represent
events of supercontinent assembly and break-up
(Vinasco et al. 2006; Cochrane et al. 2014a). However,
because the preservation of juvenile continental crust
does not require continent assembly or break-up, most
zircon peak dates probably represent arc magmatism
events (Condie et al. 2017).
The comparison shows that in contrast to the Global
and North America databases, there are no significant
peaks older than 1770 Ma in Colombia. On the other
hand, we found a good correlation with the ~1767, 1007,
605, 468, 271, 182 and 76 Ma zircon peaks in all three
databases (Figure 11). This correlation suggests that
some tectonic events in Colombia are global and might
represent crustal production and preservation (Ibáñez-
Mejía et al. 2015; Cordani et al. 2016).
The peak of 1767 Ma matches the date of the con­
tinental basement of the Amazon Craton (Cordani et al.
2016) exposed in the eastern-southeastern geographic
domain. As this peak has a global distribution, we sug­
gest that it could represent a global period of high
crustal production as suggested by Condie et al. (2019).
In contrast, the 1441–1443 Ma peaks observed in the
Global and North America databases does not match
with the 1530 Ma peak in Colombia suggesting a differ­
ent evolution associated with local events of crustal
production (arc magmatism).
The 1325 and 1178 Ma peaks in Colombia match the
age of the Putumayo orogen exposed in southern
Colombia, which yields U-Pb crystallization dates
between 1470 and 1115 Ma (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2015).
In contrast, North America and the Global database dis­
play a peak at 1155 Ma that matches the age of the
Grenville orogen (1340–1035 Ma; Mulder et al. 2017;
Puetz 2018). Despite the temporal correlation of the
1178 Ma and 1155 Ma peaks, they record two indepen­
dent events of continent collision: i) Laurentia and
INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW 25
Amazonia; and ii) Amazonia with Baltica (see Rodinia
reconstruction by Spencer et al. 2015; Cawood and
Pisarevsky 2017; Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2020). These events
of continent collision and orogeny led to the assembly of
the Rodinia supercontinent. Likewise, the 606–603 Ma
peak in the Colombian, Global and North America detri­
tal record is most likely related to the Brasiliano orogeny
that in a more global scale records the assembly of the
Pannotia supercontinent. Similarly, we interpret the
533–528 Ma peak as a global expression of the
Pannotia supercontinent break-up into Laurentia,
Siberia, Baltica, and Gondwana. This interpretation is
consistent with available global tectonic reconstructions
for the Neoproterozoic (Merdith et al. 2020).
We found a correlation between the 1056–
1025 Ma and 446–427 Ma (Figure 11) detrital zircon
peaks in the Global and North America databases
with the 1008 Ma and 471 Ma peaks in the
Colombian database. The 1056–1025 Ma has been
related to a major event of crustal preservation asso­
ciated with the assembly of the Rodinia superconti­
nent (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2015). The 1007 Ma peak,
although a bit younger, was also the result of the
collision between Baltica and Amazonia during the
assembly of Rodinia (Ibáñez-Mejía et al. 2015). In
South America (e.g. Colombia) it has been suggested
to represent a different orogenic event (Orinoquian-
Putumayo; Figure 11). The 468 Ma peak evidenced in
Colombia has been interpreted to represent an event
of orogeny that involves multiple episodes of arc
magmatism related to subduction along the
Famatinian-Taconic orogen margins (western South
America; Horton et al. 2010a). Therefore, due to its
similarity with the 446 and 427 Ma peaks observed in
North America and the Global databases, we interpret
it to represent an event of crustal production along
the margins of Gondwana and Laurentia prior to the
assembly of Pangea.
Furthermore, the 271 and 237 Ma zircon peaks dis­
played in the Colombian database (Figure 11) have been
related to the amalgamation and break-up of Pangea,
respectively (Vinasco et al. 2006; Cochrane et al. 2014;
Spikings et al. 2014, 2020). These two peaks are missing
in the detrital zircon record on North America and their
bimodal distribution is not observed in the Global data­
base, which instead shows a single peak at 254 Ma for
the Permian-Triassic (Figure 7). Therefore, it seems that
the event recorded by 271 and 237 Ma in Colombia is
localized and records the early stages of continental
rifting and the disassembly of western Pangea (tectonic
blocks presently in western Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and
Mexico; Spikings et al. 2014, 2020). On the contrary, the
254 Ma Global peak probably represents a long-lived
26 A. F. RODRIGUEZ-CORCHO ET AL.
event of crustal production along the eastern conver­
gent margin of Gondwana (Terra Australis; Cawood,
2005) as suggested in palaeogeographic reconstructions
based on marine magnetic anomalies (Matthews et al.
2016).
Episodes of crustal production might be the result of
long-lived subduction, in the case of Colombia for most
of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic (Villagómez et al. 2011a;
Bayona et al. 2012, 2020; Bustamante et al. 2017). This is
evidenced in the 182 Ma peak observed in the
Colombian database, which is similar in time to the
164 Ma reported in the Global detrital record. Although
the ~162 Ma peak appears absent in the bulk Colombian
detrital record, the magmatic zircon record contained in
the Colombian database (Figure 8) also shows a peak at
~164 Ma (Bustamante et al. 2016). The ~164 Ma peak
was probably obscured by the higher availability of
~186 Ma zircons sourced from a more vigorous, local
episode of crustal production at that time. Therefore, we
interpret that the Jurassic probably was a global period
of crustal production associated with the development
of subduction zones along the margins of Pangea, spe­
cially in Laurentia and Gondwana, due to the subduction
of the Pacific-sourced Farallon Oceanic Plate (Matthews
et al. 2016).
Finally, we observe that there are no peaks younger
than 97 Ma (Figure 11) in either the Global or North
American databases. The 97 Ma peak evidenced in the
North America and global databases seems to be related
to an episode of crustal production or preservation
related to either the subduction of the Farallon Plate
below North America or the collision of the Wrangelia
island arcs with North America during Late Cretaceous
times (Matthews et al. 2016; Clennete et al., 2020). This
event is not related to the 76 Ma peak reported in the
Colombian database, which in contrast have been
related to two localized events: i) the subduction of the
proto-Caribbean Plate below NW South America
(Boschman et al. 2014) and, ii) the accretion of the CLIP
and its related intra-oceanic arcs with South America
(Villagómez et al. 2011a). In the Colombian detrital
record, we observe a 10 Ma peak which is not present
in the North America of Global databases and can be
related to an episode of crustal production (Echeverri
et al. 2015).
6. Conclusions
In this contribution, we present The Colombian
Geochronological Database (CGD), which contains
a compilation of ca. 67,406 individuals published geo­
chronological data. The Kernel Density Estimation (KDE)
diagrams generated from the CGD shows that some
tectonic events in Colombia are global and might repre­
sent crustal production and preservation events while
other peaks might just represent local arc magmatic
events. Relevant, global peaks, are the 1007 (Grenville/
Sveconorwegian/Putumayo/Sunsas Orogeny), 605
(Braziliano/Pan-African Orogeny), 468 (Famatinian/
Taconic Orogeny), and 182 (Break-up of Pangea) Ma
zircon peaks.
It is our hope that this effort of more than three
years of intense work will motivate further systema­
tic geochronological studies in Colombia that will
also include other geochronometers and the use of
other minerals (e.g. rutile, titanite, baddeleyite). Even
though we compile the available Hf isotopic data,
more Hf data will improve the understanding of the
magmatic events and the evaluation of crustal
growth models. We also want to encourage other
countries and regions in the world to get involved in
the generation of such large databases. The CGD will
be continuously updated by a user community of
dedicated scholars working in this contribution.
Acknowledgments
We thank Los Andes University and especially the Faculty of
Science and the Department of Geoscience for their support
during the Semillero stage as well as other students who
helped in our initial compilation stage (Daniel Guarin, Daniel
Reyes, Daniela Gallo, Luisa Acosta, Luisa Rengifo, Sebastian
Duran, Sergio Silva, Nicolas Palacios, Maria Jose Delgado, Luis
Fernando Posada and Tatiana Aldana). We thank the two
reviewers (Mauricio Ibáñez-Mejía and one anonymous) for
their insightful comments who helped to increase the quality
and clarity of the manuscript. YR-A acknowledged support
through the DFG-grant RO4174/3-3.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
ORCID
Alejandro Corrales-García http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1269-
4110
Bruce Eglington http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1318-6062
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