68 Fourth /5AG , Goettinge n (Germany), 04-061/ 01/999

STYLE AND TIMING OF DEFORMATION

IN THE ORIENTE BASIN OF ECUADOR

Patrice BABY( 1), Marco RIVADENEIRA( 1), Frédéric CHRISTO PHOUL(2), Roberto BARR AGAN(3)

(1) Convenio IRD- Petroproduccion, Apartado 17 12 857, Quito, Ecuador; pbaby @pi.p ro.ec
(2) Lab. de Dynam ique des Bassins, 38 rue des 36 ponts, 3 1400 Toulouse, France, geostruc ïèc ict.fr
(3) Kerr-McGee Corporation, 16666 Nothchase, Houston, TX 77060 , USA; rbarr agantiùkm g.com

KEY WORDS: Ecuador, Oriente, inversion, tectonic history, petroleum basin

INTRODUCTION

The Oriente Basin of Ecuador (Dashwood and Abbous, 1990) forms a Sub- Andean foothills and foreland
basin comprised between the Putumayo Basin of Colombia and the Mara üon Basin of Peru. Petroleum
activities of the last 10 years provided new data which permit to clarify its structural features (Figs, 1 et 2)
and tectonic evo lution (Fig. 3). Stratigraph ically, the Oriente Basin preserves a Phanerozoic sedirnentary
colu mn ranging in age From Paleozoic to Recent (Tschopp, 1953; Canfield et al., 1982; Dashwood and
Abbotts, 1990; Jaillard, 1997) which outcrops in the foothills (Napo and Cu tuc ü uplifts). This
sedimentary co lumn can be subdi vided into three mega-sequences: a pre-Cretaceous series, which is
unconformably covered by a continental to shalJow marine Cretaceo us sedimentary preorogenic cycle and
a Ce nozoic co ntinental foreland filling. In this paper, we resume the results of the IRD (Institut Français
de Recherche pour le Développement) - PETROPR ODUCCION tectoni c teamwork . A revision and a
new presentation of the sedimentary co lumn involved in the deformation is proposed. A geome trie and
kinematic analysis and a new structural feature of the Oriente Basin are presented. On the base of the
analysis of the tectonics-erosion-sedirnentation relationships, principal tectonic eve nts of the Oriente
Basin development are defined. Geodynamic and Petroleum implications are then discussed.

Fig.1. STRUCTURAL SECTION ACROSS THE ORIENTE BASIN

SUBANDEAN EA ST .
SYSTEM SACHA-SHUSHUFINDI CAPIRON-TIPUTINI
CORRIDOR INVERTED SYSTEM

~
OliGOCENE y NEOGENE FORELAND DEPOSrTS
o 10 20 :Il ~o 50 !COlm
1
>o . UPPER CRETACEOUS · PALEOGENE · EOCENE
PRE CRETACEOUS
BASEMENT
JRD . PETROPRODUCCfON
 Fourth /5AG, Goettingen (Germany), 04-061/01/999 69

STRUCTURAL STYLE

The Oriente Basin is deformed by major compressive NNE-SSW wrench fault zones (Figs. 1 and 2),
which correspond to inverted Mesozoic rift systems. Main structures correspond to positive flower
structures developed along three NNE-SSW right-Iateral convergent wrench-fault zones. (1) In the
western part, the Subandean System (Napo Uplift and Cutuc ü Uplift) is still seismically and volcanically
active . (2) In the centre of the basin, the Shushufindi-Sacha Corridor results From the inversion of a NNE-
SSW trend of Upper Triassic to Lower lurassic half-grabens which emerges actually in the Cutucü Uplift.
(3) To the east, the Capir6n-Tiputini play is an inverted system of half-grabens (Fig. 2) probably Permo-
Triassic in age . In the Sacha-Shushufindi Corridor as in the Capir6n-Tiputini Inverted System, half-
grabens were eroded and sealed by Middle lurassic ta Basal Cretaceous volcano-clastic sediments
(Chapiza-Yaupi Fm .), or by the Aptian-Lower Albian Hollfn Formation . Locally, the Yaupi Fm. is
affected by normal faults.

". FIG. 2 - TECTONIC MAP

OF THE ORIENTE BASIN
(/RD - PETROPRODUCCtON)

.1

1 \

"" ',,1 SUBANDEAN SYSTEM

SACHA-SHUSHUFINDI
CORRIDOR

P :"7'~ 1 CAPIRON·TIPUTINI
F'~. . INVERTED SYSTEM

, PETROLIFEROUS
, STRUCTURES

l001an
NO PETROLIFEROUS
f). AND NO EXPLORED
STRUCTURES
70 Fourt h /5AG, Goettingen (Germany ), 04 -061/01 /999

FIG. 3 - TECTONO-STRATIGRAPHIC UNITS OF THE ORIENTE BASIN

MAGMAT ISM
ROCK UNIT CALC-
CHRO NO- L1THOLOGY PALEO- ALKALIN
TEC TON IC EVENT
STRAT IGRAPHY ENVIRON MEN T f-
a
a.
.~r,

...
f-
al
0 • A commente'
UJ PLI a CENE (QUECHUA PHA SE)
z
10
UJ
0 MIOCENE
. URA RA
sh all o
a manne Fore/and
UJ
20 z
ANA con /lnanl al
ORT EGU AZ A
30 UJ
Fore'and
ffil------l
e
40 - @
..J
EOCENE
LOWER Tl YU YACU
<t conunemst
50 Q.
f----+~~~ .....-t - - - - ----1
UPPER TEN A
cornmenïs !
60

LOW ER TENA
70 ccniinentet Inil ia /lo n 01 Fora /and
Shdllowmanne

80 CI) LA TE UPP ER NA PO
RAN SPR ESSI VE INV E RSIO
:::l (PERU AN PHASE )
a snstto« menn e
UJ
90 U
<t LOwER N APO
1-
UJ
100 ~
U
HaL LIN
contmentsl
110 shaffowmanne
EAR L Y

120

130
MIDDLE-UP PER
JURASS/C

LOWER S AN TIAGO
JURASS/C MITU
Ta sneuo« marine
10
PERMIAN cotümenïe)
260
 Fourth /SAC, Coettingen (Cermany), 04-061/01/999 71

TIMING OF CRETACEOUS AND CENOZOIC COMPRESSIVE DEFORMATIONS

Reflection seismic data show syn-tectonic sedimentation which recorded 3 stages of transpression:
Turonian-Maastrichtian; Early Eocene; Pliocene-Quaternary. The Sacha-Shushufindi Corridor formed in
large part between the Turonian and the Maastrichtian, while the Capir6n-Tiputini Inverted System is
principally Eocene in age. The Subandean uplift developed during the Pliocene and Quaternary, but
includes sorne Maastrichtian structures as the Bermejo field.
The Turonian-Maastrichtian tectonic crisis is contemporaneous with an "intra-continental hot-spot" under
the Oriente Basin, as show the extrusive magmatic bodies associated to the right-lateral wrench-fault zone
of the Sacha-Shushufindi Corridor (Barragan et al., 1999). The rnaturity of Cretaceous source rocks in
this zone is due to this thermal anomaly.

DISCUSION AND CONCLUSION

The Figure 3 resumes the tectonic and sedimentologic evolution of the Oriente Basin. Initialisation of the
foreland basin starts during the Turonian-Maastrichtian tectonic crisis, and its Cenozoic evolution is
controlled by interference of tectonic and eustatic events (Jaillard, 1997; Christophoul, 1999).

The more productive oil fields of the Oriente Basin correspond to Late Cretaceous and Eocene structural
traps. Oil was accumulated in Aptian to Maastrichtian sandstones. Cretaceous source rocks maturity is
due to subsidence of the Cenozoic foreland basin and the continental "intra-continental hot-spot"
contemporaneous with the Turonian-Maastrichtian tectonic crisis. The Napo Uplift is probably the
rernnant part of a largest petroleum system which developed towards the west. Two peaks of oil
generation and expulsion are evidenced. The first one occurred in the Lower and Middle Eocene, in a
foreland basin which extended to the west of the present basin limits. Upper Eocene to Oligocene times
correspond to a period of erosion and poor subsidence, where oil expulsion stopped. During the Neogene,
the second peak of oil expulsion occurred with the return of the foreland basin subsidence, and the
western part of the petroleum system was progressively deformed and destroyed by the Andes uplift.
72 Fourth ISAC. Goettingen (C I'IïIWI/\'). ().I-()()f1O/1 999

REFERENCES

Barragan R. and Baby P. 1999. A Cretaccous hot spot in the Ecuadorian Oriente Basin: Geochirnical,
Geochr onological and Tectonic indicators, ISAG 99, This issue.
Canfield R., Bonilla G., Robbins R. K. 1982. Sacha Oil Field of Ecuadorian Or iente . AAPG Bull. 6 1,
1076-10 90.
Christoph oul F., Baby P., Davila C. 1999. Descrimination of Eustatic and Tectonic influences in the
Ecuadori an Oriente Basin l'rom the aptian to the Oligoeene . ISAG 99, this issue.
Dashwood M.F.. Abbots J.L. 1990. Aspects of the Petroleum geol ogy of the Orie nte Basin . Ecuad or, ill
Brooks 1. Ed.. Cla ssic Petroleum Provinces, Geological Society Special Publication. n° 50 , 89-117 .
Jaill ard E. 1997 . Sfntesis Estrutigrafica y Sedimentol ôgica dei Cretacee y Paleogen e de la Cuen ca
Oriental dei Ecuad or , Perroproducci ôn-OkS'TOlvl Edicion , 163 p.
Tschopp H. J. 1953 . Oil explorations in the Oriente of Ecuador. AAPG Bulletin. 37, 2303-2347 .