Northern Part of Oriente Basin, Ecuador:

Reflection Seismic Expression of Structures

H. R. Balkwill F. I. Paredes

G. Rodrigue J. P. Almeida

Petro-Canada Resources, Tripetrol Petroleum Ecuador

Calgary, Alberta, Canada Quito, Ecuador

Abstract

I ndustry reflection seismic profiles from the northern part of the Oriente basin display families of
basement-rooted structures ranging in age from early Mesozoic (and possibly Permian) to Quaternary. We
interpret the Mesozoic-Cenozoic structures to be kinematically and chronologically compatible with tectonic
events displayed in the contiguous Andean Cordillera. Late Triassic (and Permian?) extensional structures may
have been linked to an intra-Cordilleran rift regime. Widely developed Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous conver-
gent structures are coeval with transpression along the western margin of the South American plate. Late
Cretaceous and Cenozoic convergent structures are responses to major episodes of plate marginal terrane
accretion and plate convergence. Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic phases of structuring are displayed on seismic
profiles as a network of steeply dipping northward-trending faults that have risen from Precambrian crystalline
basement into the Phanerozoic cover rocks. Northward-elongated sharply hinged folds generated in cover
rocks by slip on basement faults are traps for Oriente basin oil fields.

Resumen

L os perfiles de reflexión sismica disponibles dentro de la industria de la parte norte de la cuenca del
Oriente, muestran varios typos de estructuras asociadas con el basamento que datan desde el Mesozoico
superior (y posiblemente del Pérmico) haste el Cuaternario. Las estructuras del Mesozoico-Cenozoico se inter-
pretan cinematica y cronológicamente compatible con eventos tectónicos que se manifiestan adyacentes a la
Cordillera Andina. Tales eventos son los siguientes: Las estructuras de extensión del Triasico Superior pueden
ester asociadas a un régimen de "rift" intra-cordillera. Las estructuras convergentes, ampliamente desarrolladas
al Jurasico Superior-Cretacio Inferior, son contemporaneas con la compresión a lo largo del margen oeste de la
place suramericana. Las estructuras convergentes del Cretacio Superior y del Cenozoico son resultados debido
a mayores episodios de acreción de terrenos y de convergencia de la place. Las differentes etapas de desarrollo
de las estructuras del Cretacio Superior y del Cenozoico se manifiestan como un conjunto de fallas de fuerte
buzamiento de dirección norte, que surgen del basamento cristalino Precambrico hasta la cobertura Phanero-
zoica. Los pliegues agudos de type tumbados de direccion norte, generados en la cobertura por deslizamiento
de fallas al nivel del basamento, son trampas pare los campos de la cuenca del Oriente.

INTRODUCTION southward into Peru, where it is called the Marañon basin.

Ecuador can be divided into three distinctive subpar-
allel tectonic-morphologic provinces, which from east to
west are the Oriente, Cordillera (Andes), and Costa
province (Baldock, 1982) (Figure 1). The jungle-covered
Oriente basin is the focus of on-going petroleum explo-
ration. The Oriente basin extends northward into
Colombia where it is called the Putamayo basin, and
These domains are part of the system of sub-Andean
foreland basins that reach from Venezuela to southern
Chile (Gansser, 1973).
Cumulative oil production from the Ecuadorian
Oriente has been more than 1.5 billion bbl; current
production is about 300,000 bbl per day. Oriente basin oil
is housed in Cretaceous sandstones, trapped in structures
of Cretaceous and Tertiary ages (White et al., 1995).

559
Balkwill, H. R., G. Rodrigue, F. I. Paredes, and J. P. Almeida, 1995, Northern part of Oriente basin,
Ecuador: reflection seismic expression of structures, in A. J. Tankard, R. Suárez S., and H. J. Welsink,
Petroleum basins of South America: AAPG Memoir 62, p. 559-571.
560 Balkwill et al.
Geochemical analyses indicate that the oil migrated into
these structures from Cretaceous source rocks in areas
now comprising the eastern Cordillera and southern-
most parts of the Oriente basin (Dashwood and Abbotts,
1990). Rivadeneira (1988) suggested that Lower Jurassic
source shales in southern Ecuador and northern Peru
may have provided some of the oils.
Petroleum exploration progressed generally eastward
and southward across the Oriente basin. Large, topo-
graphically expressed anticlines of the sub-Andean
foothills were drilled in early operations (Tschopp, 1953).
Present exploration is directed mainly to subtle struc-
tures concealed beneath the Oriente jungle (Canfield et
al., 1982; Dashwood and Abbotts, 1990). More than 550
wells have been drilled, most of which bottomed in
Mesozoic rocks. A few wells penetrated through the sub-
Mesozoic unconformity to Paleozoic strata and to
Precambrian crystalline basement. In excess of 30,000 km
of CDP reflection seismic data have been acquired since
1961. The average seismic grid is about 4 x 4 km, but it is
denser in some areas. Data have been recorded and
processed usually to 5-6 sec (two-way time). Seismic
Figure 1--Regional tectonic
map of the Oriente basin,
Ecuador. Note locations of
seismic sections in Fgures
3-12. (Adapted from
Baldock, 1982; Rosania and
Morales, 1986; and from
mapping of regional seismic
grid by Petroecuador and
Petro-Canada.)
quality ranges from poor to excellent; the quality and
coverage are adequate for regional mapping purposes.
Tschopp's (1953) paper on early oil exploration in the
Oriente region provides a standard valuable reference
for stratigraphic nomenclature and early concepts of
Oriente geology. Canfield et al. (1982) have provided an
informative paper on the geology of the large Sacha oil
field in the western part of the basin (Figure 1).
Dashwood and Abbotts (1990) have summarized Oriente
basin petroleum geology, with an emphasis on the
geochemistry of oils and source rocks. Abundant unpub-
lished geologic and geophysical reports have resulted
from work by the staff of Petroecuador (formerly Corpo-
racion Estatal Petrolera Ecuatoriana, or CEPE).
This paper provides representative reflection seismic
profiles across the northern part of the Oriente basin to
illustrate the styles and ages of oil-bearing and prospec-
tive structures and to provide evidence for interpreta-
tions of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectonic environment of
the basin. Much of the material and concepts resulted
from a collaborative regional study by CEPE and Petro-
Canada explorationists in 1987-88 (Balkwill et al., 1988).
 Northern Part of Oriente Basin, Ecuador: R Reflection Seismic Expression of Structures 561
REGIONAL SETTING
By reason of its great elevation (locally higher than 5000
m), the Cordillera forms the dominant physiographic
province of Ecuador (Gansser, 1973) (Figure 1). The moun-
tainous Cordillera consists of two subparallel belts
separated by a narrow graben. The Western Cordillera has
a basement of Upper Cretaceous oceanic crust that was
obducted onto the margin of South America in latest
Cretaceous-early Tertiary time and subsequently restruc-
tured by Tertiary plate dynamics (Daly, 1989). The Eastern
Cordillera (Cordillera Real) consists of an infrastructure of
polydeformed, variably metamorphosed Mesozoic and
older rocks, with a superstructure of Cenozoic andesitic
flows, volcaniclastics, and associated sedimentary rocks.
Jaillard et al. (1990) recognized an initial Mesozoic
tectonic event (possibly as old as Permian) in the region of
the Cordillera Real. It involved Triassic continental margin
rifting, linked possibly northward through Colombia to
the vast Tethyan rift domain of the proto-Caribbean and
mid-Atlantic. The Triassic rift domain was superposed in
the Early Jurassic by a marine trough (Santiago trough) in
which carbonates, shales, and subaerial volcanic rocks
accumulated. From detailed mapping of outcrops in the
Cordillera Real, Aspden and Litherland (1992) proposed a
tectonic scenario for subsequent Jurassic-Cretaceous
development of the Cordillera Real. They interpreted the
western margin of the pre-Mesozoic craton to lie near the
eastern edge of the Cordillera, where large-scale calc-
alkaline volcanic and plutonic activity commenced in the
late Early Jurassic and continued to middle Late Jurassic.
Structural fabrics mapped in the Cordillera by Aspden
and Litherland (1992) indicate dextral transform and
eastward overthrusting along steeply dipping shear zones.
The shear zones bound distinctive tectonic-lithologic
assemblages ("divisions"), which they interpreted as
allochthonous terranes, accreted to the margin and
deformed from the latest Jurassic to middle Early Creta-
ceous (about 125 Ma). In addition, they correlated uplift of
the Cordillera Real and major resetting of mineral ages in
the middle Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary (85-55 Ma) with
convergence generated by accretion of the allochthonous
oceanic rocks now comprising the basement of the
Western Cordillera and Costa (Figure 1).
Neogene plate reorganization in the eastern Pacific
caused accelerated convergence at the northwestern
margin of South America, resulting in great uplift of the
Cordillera, a surge of andesitic volcanism, and develop-
ment of present-day Andean morphology (Herron, 1972;
Daly, 1989).
The Oriente basin province consists of two physio-
graphic-structural domains. A topographically low,
jungle-covered eastern region has a floor of Precambrian
crystalline basement, overlain by a westward-thickening
wedge of slightly folded and faulted Phanerozoic cover
rocks. A system of large, westward-dipping reverse faults
(and locally an eastward-facing steep monocline)
separates the eastern Oriente subprovince from a
contiguous sub-Andean segment. Moderately to strongly
folded and faulted eastward-displaced cratonic basement
and Phanerozoic strata lie under the moderately incised
sub-Andean domain. These rocks are largely correlative
with the less disturbed rocks of the eastern part of the
basin. Two anticlinoria (Napo and Cutucu uplifts)
separated by an intervening structural depression (Puyo
depression) dominate the structural geometry of the sub-
Andean domain (Figure 1). Westward-dipping steep
thrusts, which bring ruggedly incised Cordilleran crys-
talline rocks against the unmetamorphosed sub-Andean
rocks, form an abrupt western boundary for the sub-
Andean foothills.
STRATIGRAPHY
The Oriente basin cover rocks range in age from
Silurian to Quaternary; regional lithostratigraphic, bio-
stratigraphic, and reflection seismic evidence allows delin-
eation of several megasequences (Figure 2). The succession
thickens westward and southward to more than 5 km at
the border with Peru (Figure 1).
Only a few wells have reached crystalline basement
under the Oriente foreland basin cover. From this meager
well control and from regional mapping of shallow reflec-
tion seismic character, the basement under the entire
Oriente is believed to consist of Proterozoic metamorphic
and plutonic rocks of the Amazon craton (Baldock, 1982;
Canfield et al., 1982). As a generalization, radiometric ages
of Amazon craton rocks decrease systematically
westward, outlining northwest-trending geochronologic
provinces that may represent terranes affixed successively
to an Archean core during the early-middle Proterozoic.
The youngest province recognized thus far (Sunsas mobile
belt) may represent a phase of ensialic deformation,
metaphorphism, and plutonism during the interval 1100-
900 Ma (Teixeira et al., 1989; deMatos and Brown, 1992).
Regional gravity data indicate that the sialic crust under
the Oriente basin is about 30-35 km thick (Feininger and
Seguin, 1983).
Paleozoic rocks in the sub-Andean foothills are
assigned to the Pumbuiza and Macuma formations
(Tschopp, 1953). From these outcrops and some deep
wells, the Pumbuiza terrigenous clastics have yielded
marine fossils ranging in age from Late Silurian to Early
Carboniferous. The Macuma carbonates and clastics
contain fossils ranging in age from Late Carboniferous to
Permian (Canfield et al., 1982).
The Pumbuiza and Macuma formations cannot be
easily separated on most seismic profiles (Figures 3,4,5,6).
There is sufficient regional control to outline a western
region of Pumbuiza-Macuma rocks under the proximal
part of the Oriente foreland and an eastern domain along
the Ecuador-Peru border. The two domains of Paleozoic
strata are separated by an irregularly shaped northward-
elongated region of Precambrian basement (Figure 1). The
Paleozoic strata typically lie in isolated structures bounded
by basement-rooted faults that display large-scale reversal
of dip slip (Figures 4, 5, 6). The combined thickness of
Pumbuiza-Macuma beds in some of these structures is
greater than several hundred meters (Rosania and
562 Balkwill et al.
Figure 2--Stratigraphy of the northern part of the Oriente basin. (Adapted from Canfield et al., 1982; Rosania and Morales,
1986; Petro-Canada proprietary reports.)
Morales, 1986).
The basement fault-bounded structures that define
inliers of Pumbuiza-Macuma strata commonly contain a
superimposed succession, hundreds of meters thick, of
conglomeratic, nonmarine, terrigenous clastics (Figures
3, 4, 5, 6). These successions are indistinctly layered on
most seismic profiles. They lie in structures interpretable
as post-Macuma extensional half-grabens subsequently
modified by reversal of dip slip. The rocks were drilled
at a location near seismic line CP 3530 (Figure 6). They
have long been considered as correlatives of the Jurassic
Chapiza Formation of the sub-Andean Foothills because
of their texture and red color and because they were
evidently younger than Macuma strata and older than
Cretaceous (Tschopp, 1953). No firmly diagnostic fossils
have been reported from the enigmatic strata from this
location or other wells where the fault-bounded beds
have been drilled, although possible Triassic spores were
recovered from some well samples (M. Rivadeneira,
Petroecuador, 1988, personal communication). Regional
seismic evidence from northern Peru (Marañon basin--
not available for display--shows that the fault-bounded
clastic rocks are older than the Jurassic Chapiza
Formation. Balkwill et al. (1988) have suggested that the
graben-associated beds might be broadly correlative
with the Mitu Formation of the Peruvian Andes. We
now propose that the rocks represent isolated rift
elements that were linked westward to the cratonic
marginal Triassic rift regime recognized recently in the
Cordillera Real by Jaillard et al. (1990) and Aspden and
Litherland (1992).
Lower Jurassic marine carbonates and shales
(Santiago Formation) crop out in the Cutucu uplift
(Baldock, 1982). These rocks and coeval volcanic breccias
and tuffs were deposited in an initially deep narrow
trough, superimposed on the Triassic rift domain of the
 Northern Part of Oriente Basin, Ecuador: R Reflection Seismic Expression of Structures 563

Figure 3--Part of the reflection seismic proflie CP 48 from the eastern Oriente basin (see Figure 1 for location). Vertical scale
for this and all following seismic displays is in seconds (two~way time). Rock units: PC, Precambrian basement; Pz,
Pumbuiza-Macuma formations; Tr, Triassic beds; Kh, Hollin Formation; Kn, marker in Napo Formation; Tt, top of Tiyuyacu
Formation. Note the paraconformable contact of Paleozoic strata with basement, the local truncation of Macuma beds
beneath indistinctly layered Triassic beds, and the structural disruption of Triassic and older rocks and their truncation
beneath subhorizontal basal Cretaceous strata.

Figure 4--Part of seismic section

CP 3506 (unmigrated) from the
northeastern Oriente basin.
Rock units as in Figure 3. Note
the paraconformable contact of
the Paleozoic strata (Pz) above
the basement broken by
basement-rooted extension
faults (at left). Also note the
inverted half-graben (at left) and
basement-rooted reverse fault
(at right) produced by middle
Tertiary convergence.

Cordillera Real Qaillard et al., 1990). Platform carbonates
of the upper part of the Santiago Formation are present in
the southern part of the Oriente basin. Coeval nonmarine
strata may extend northward along the axial part of the
basin.
Coarse-grained, Jurassic red beds assigned to the
Chapiza Formation in the sub-Andean foothills (Baldock,
1982) may be partially coeval with Santiago strata
(Aspden and Litherland, 1992). The Chapiza clastic
wedge tapers and becomes finer grained eastward,
demonstrating Jurassic syndepositional uplift along the
western margin of the Oriente basin. The clastic rocks and
the overlying volcaniclastic Misahualli Member (Figure 2)
are approximately coeval with some large Jurassic calc-
alkaline plutons in the easternmost part of the Cordillera
Real. Aspden and Litherland (1992) propose that the
intrusive phase was followed by latest Jurassic-Early
Cretaceous accretion and eastward thrusting of exotic
terranes against the western margin of the Cordillera
Real.
564 Balkwill et al.

Figure 5--Part of reflection seismic section CP 3588 from the eastern Oriente basin. Rock units as in Figure 3. Note the trun-
cation of Triassic beds beneath Cretaceous strata and the middle Tertiary inversion of Triassic extension fault. The late
Tertiary (far left) and middle Tertiary (left center) narrow contractional "pop-up" anticlines are focused at the base of
Triassic strata, possibly from intrastratal slip associated with a basement reverse fault. Moderately westward-dipping intra-
basement reflectors were activated as slip surfaces in late Cenozoic convergence. The basement-rooted late Cenozoic
reverse faults with opposed vergence define a large crustal "pop-up" and associated forced folds in the cover rocks.

Figure 6--Part of reflection seismic section CP 3530 from the northeastern Oriente basin. Rock units as in Figure 3. Note the
variably dipping intrabasement reflectors, the paraconformable contact of Paleozoic strata with basement, and the indis-
tinct reflection character of Triassic rocks.Large-scale structural disruption and truncation of Triassic beds occur beneath
basal Cretaceous Hollin Formation. Note the inversion of the Triassic half-graben by late Cenozoic contraction.
 Northern Part of Oriente Basin, Ecuador: R Reflection Seismic Expression of Structures 565
Hollin quartz arenites, possibly as old as Aptian
(Aleman and Marksteiner, 1993), form the basal beds of
the Cretaceous megasequence. Hollin strata lie uncon-
formably above an erosionally planed surface developed
on previously structured older rock units ranging from
Precambrian basement to Chapiza red beds (Figures 2
through 12). Unpublished biostratigraphic determina-
tions (Petro-Canada proprietary information) indicate
that the Hollin Formation, which is locally up to 130 m
thick, is diachronously younger eastward. The sand-
stones are coastal and shallow marine facies of Creta-
ceous clastic wedges that prograded westward into the
Oriente basin from its eastern margin (Figure 2). The
distal marine facies (Napo Formation) is as thick as a few
hundred meters; it may range in age from Albian to
Campanian (Dashwood and Abbotts, 1990).
The eastern part of the Napo succession contains
southwest-tapering and southwest-fining stacked
wedges of quartz arenites and subarkoses, informally
named from upper to lower, the M1, M2, U, and T sand-
stones. The sandstones are separated by shales and lime-
stones (the latter also having some informal member
designations). Local intraformational parasequence
boundaries are evident in the Napo Formation lying
above elongate, northward-trending paleostructural
highs (Figure 7). Subtle intra-Napo relief on these
elements may represent local erosion and winnowing of
strata and/or onlap by basal beds of the overlying
parasequence. Some leaching of Napo limestones at the
local unconformities indicates that the paleotopographic
highs were sometimes exposed. The upper part of the
Napo Formation was truncated progressively westward
from the axial part of the basin prior to deposition of
overlying beds of the Maastrichtian - lower Tertiary Tena
Formation (Figure 2).
Upper Maastrichtian-Cenozoic strata consist of coarse-
to fine-grained, mainly nonmarine terrigenous clastic
detritus shed eastward in response to uplift and erosion
of the Andean orogenic belt. The lower part of this
succession, the Tena and Tiyuyacu formations, are domi-
Figure 7--Part of a reflection
seismic section from the central
Oriente basin (location confiden-
tial). Rock units as in Figure 3.
Note the low-relief asymmetric
anticline in Cretaceous strata in
the central part of the section.
Also note the thinning of intra-
Cretaceous reflector "a" toward
anticlinal crest and the rejuvena-
tion of anticline in the middle
Tertiary marked by a subtle fold at
the level of Tiyuyacu Formation.
nantly fine-grained and are a few hundreds of meters
thick. Locally prominent disconformities between the
Tiyuyacu Formation and overlying Orteguaza strata
mark important intrabasin structuring in Eocene or
Oligocene time (Figure 2). The structural relief developed
during this interval delineated elongate anticlinal traps in
Cretaceous sandstones that host the largest oil fields in
the Oriente basin (Canfield et al., 1982).
The upper terrigenous clastic sequence (Oligocene
Orteguaza Formation and overlying strata) represents
depositional responses to accelerated convergence of
cratonic and oceanic crust at the western margin of the
South American plate. This was accompanied by
vigorous uplift of the Andes and eastward-shedding of
coarse-grained clastic wedges into the contiguous Oriente
foreland basin. Orteguaza beds lie above truncated
Tiyuyacu beds in the periphery of the sub-Andean belt.
Eastward from there, the basal Orteguaza strata (which
contain some thin marine beds) occupy paleodepressions
in the broad folds that were developed in underlying
Tiyuyacu beds during middle Tertiary tectonism. Large
amounts of latest Tertiary-Quaternary clastic detritus
were shed basinward through the Puyo structural
depression (Figure 1). The entire Cenozoic depositional
cycle of eastward-prograding clastics and the older cover
rocks under it are undergoing present-day structural
modification by neotectonic movement on basement
reverse faults (Figures 5, 6, 9,10,11,12).
STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY
Division of the Oriente basin into the sub-Andean and
eastern Oriente domains was originally based on topo-
graphic expression of structures (Tschopp, 1953). Most of
the sub-Andean part of the Oriente consists of large, high,
northward-trending strike ridges, with outcrops of folded
Paleozoic and younger strata cut by steeply dipping
reverse faults. The eastern Oriente is a very low, morpho-
logically subdued terrain where underlying structures
are manifested only locally by gentle surface dips and
566 Balkwill et al.

Figure 8--Eastern part of seismic section CP 149 from the north-central Oriente basin. Rock units as in Figure 3. Note the
opposed vergence of basement-rooted reverse faults and associated "kink-band" forced folds. Fault at left is early
Tertiary age, with differential thickening of Tiyuyacu Formation (Tt), and fault at right is middle Tertiary age, associated
with thickening of post-Tiyuyacu strata.

Figure 9--Part of seismic section CP-

3506 from the northeastern Oriente
basin. Rock units as in Figure 3. Note
the eastward-dipping basement-rooted
reverse faults and forced folds in cover
rocks, having different ages of
movement: fault A, early Tertiary only;
faults B and C, Late Cretaceous or early
Tertiary, rejuvenated slightly in middle
Tertiary; fault D, prominent late
Cenozoic development, with associated
"kink-band" forced fold.
 Northern Part of Oriente Basin, Ecuador: R Reflection Seismic Expression of Structures 567
Figure 10--Part of seismic section CP 3514 from the northeastern Oriente basin. Rock units as in Rgure 3. Note the
westward-dipping late Cenozoic basement-generated "pop-up" anticline; fault at the eastern margin of structure may reach
the surface.
subtle alignments of drainage elements.
Abundant industry reflection seismic profiles show that
the most significant structures in the foreland comprise a
network of steeply dipping faults arranged in north-
trending en echelon sets (Figure 1). The faults rise from
basement into various stratigraphic levels in the cover rock
succession and have disrupted the cover rocks as forced
(drape) folds. The strike directions of basement faults in
the eastern Oriente subdomain are approximately parallel
with structural trends in the contiguous sub-Andean Napo
and Cutucu uplifts. Faults north of Curaray River strike
north-northeastward, parallel to the general trend of the
Napo uplift, and the foreland faults south of the Curaray
River strike north-northwestward, parallel to the Cutucu
uplift. A broad inference is that the regional structural
trends owe their parallelism to an interconnected through-
going deep basement fabric. Because many of the
basement faults have undergone kinematic reversal in
their histories, they are discussed here in a chronologic
framework.
Proterozoic and Paleozoic
The oldest structures evident on northern Oriente
seismic profiles are moderately dipping prominent reflec-
tions in basement, shown in some profiles near the eastern
border of Ecuador (Figures 4, 5, 6). The bundles of strong
reflectors interrupt a generally diffuse basement seismic
character, commonly lacking distinctive planar reflection
characteristics. Some of the basement fabrics have struc-
tural continuity into Phanerozoic cover rocks and have
influenced structures generated within those strata. In
other places, the basement fabrics are truncated abruptly at
the upper surface of the basement and seem not to
influence the cover rocks. It is inferred from this that the
basement discontinuities originated during Proterozoic
events and that some of these have been reactivated--as
innate zones of brittle failure at various times in the
Phanerozoic, depending on the state of stress and the
nature and orientation of the basement inhomogeneity.
The genetic origins of the basement fabrics may represent
large thrust faults or shear zones imparted during Protero-
zoic accretionary events.
Lower Paleozoic (Pumbuiza) rocks in Cutucu uplift
were folded and faulted prior to deposition of overlying
Carboniferous (Macuma) beds (Tschopp, 1953). The
Pumbuiza and Macuma megasequences are difficult to
separate (except locally) in the subsurface of the northern
Oriente basin. We could not discern evidence from the
seismic data of significant middle Paleozoic structures.
Permian-Triassic
A network of basement-involved half-grabens and
other relict structural depressions extend from the
northern Oriente basin southward to Rio Curaray, thence
southeastward into the Marañon basin of Peru (Figures 3,
4, 5, 6). The half-grabens commonly contain two strati-
graphic sequences. The lower succession consists of
moderately well-stratified strong reflectors that are subpar-
allel internally and with the underlying basement contact.
We interpret these rocks as carbonates and clastics of the
568 Balkwill et al.
Macuma Formation and older Pumbuiza Formation. The
upper sequence, with its indistinctly layered, diffuse to
vaguely apparent internal reflection characteristics, are
conglomeratic terrigenous clastics penetrated by the well
drilled near seismic line CP 3530 (Figure 6).
We interpret the extensional elements and their coarse
clastic infill to be relict cratonic inliers, genetically linked
to the Triassic rift regime that Jaillard et al. (1990) and
Aspden and Litherland (1992) mapped in the Cordillera
Real and which extend along the eastern Andes of
Colombia and Peru.
The early Mesozoic rift assemblage and older rocks
were significantly folded, uplifted, and erosionally
planed prior to preservation of basal Cretaceous deposits
(Figures 3, 4, 5, 6). This impressive intracratonic conver-
gent tectonic event reached eastward as far as the
western part of Solimoes basin, western Brazil, where
deep seismic profiles show evidence of major Late
Jurassic - Early Cretaceous reverse faulting, uplift, and
planation before deposition of the oldest preserved
Cretaceous strata (deMatos and Brown, 1992; see also
Petrobras, 1983). The evidence of intra-Cordilleran trans-
pressive accretionary convergence during the Late
Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, elucidated by Aspden and
Litherland (1992), provides a possible dynamic cause for
this important intraplate event.
Cretaceous-Cenozoic
Cretaceous-Cenozoic representatives of the network
of Oriente basin faults extend upward with moderate to
Figure 11--Part of seismic
section CP 3550 from the
eastern Oriente basin. Rock
units as in Figure 3. Note the
prominent westward-dipping
basement-rooted reverse fault
and narrow, asymmetric "pop-
up" anticline developed by an
antithetic reverse fault rooted
near the base of Cretaceous
cover rocks.
steep dips from crystalline basement and cut overlying
Cretaceous-Cenozoic strata or have developed sharply
hinged, asymmetric forced folds with relief of a few tens
of meters to hundreds of meters (Figures 4-12). The
basement-generated faults and folds have critical signifi-
cance for hydrocarbon exploration. All of the major fields
thus far discovered in the eastern Oriente basin, such as
the Sacha field (Figure 1), are low-relief structural traps,
owing their existence to closure on these elements
(Canfield et al., 1982).
The oldest seismically recognizable Late Cretaceous
structures are low relief, northward-elongated paleoto-
pographic highs against which beds in the upper part of
the Napo Formation are seen to thin (Figure 7). Napo
limestones are leached at the crests of some of these
structures. We interpret these elements as small-scale
Late Cretaceous convergent uplifts of basement. They
appear to be embryonic foreland basin responses to the
Late Cretaceous transpressional convergence that
Aspden and Litherland (1992) interpreted for the
Cordillera Real.
Differential thinning and thickening of the Tena-
Tiyuyacu succession, across basement-rooted reverse
faults and forced folds, demonstrate that basin conver-
gence accelerated in the early Tertiary from mild begin-
nings in the Late Cretaceous (Figures 8, 9). The early
Tertiary foreland convergent phase was dynamically
compatible with the regionally convergent tectonic envi-
ronment that prevailed in the Cordillera (Daly, 1989;
Aspden and Litherland, 1992). A late Cenozoic surge of
basin compression, coincident with convergence and
 Northern Part of Oriente Basin, Ecuador: R Reflection Seismic Expression of Structures 569
Figure 12--Part of seismic section CP 149 from the sub-Andean foothills, northwestem Oriente basin. Rock units as in
Figure 3. Note the westward-dipping late Cenozoic reverse fault and splays, as well as the eastward-dipping antithetic
reverse faults.
great uplift of the Andes, is made evident by the amounts
of structural relief generated on structures far out in the
foreland basin (Figures 5, 6,11) as well as in the sub-
Andean foothills (Figure 12).
Some of the Cenozoic faults are up-section projections
of faults displaying Triassic (and Permian?) normal slip.
Slip on the Cenozoic components of these vestigial struc-
tures has been in a reverse sense (Figures 4, 5, 6). Many
other basement faults with Cenozoic slip or forced-fold
flexure do not coincide with early Mesozoic (or Paleozoic)
structures (Figures 8, 9,10,11). Whether or not relict
basement fabrics determined their locations cannot be
demonstrated. The amounts and times of reverse slip and
associated forced-fold flexure vary across members of the
Cenozoic network, even for faults in close proximity
(Figure 9). For the large fault that forms the leading edge
of the faulted domain north of Curaray River (Figure 1),
the region of greatest Cenozoic reverse slip coincides
approximately with the position of greatest Triassic (and
Permian?) normal slip (Figure 6), indicating that some of
the inherited basement anisotropies are particularly
susceptible to large-scale stress adjustment. East-dipping
reverse faults, antithetic to the large westward-dipping
reverse faults that form the leading edge of the disrupted
foreland, have created anticlinal "pop-up" culminations
that range in width from a few kilometers to many kilo-
meters (Figures 5,10). Some other east-dipping antithetic
faults forming pop-ups are detached in ductile cover rocks
above basement rather than being rooted in basement
(Figure 11).
The regional geometry of Cretaceous-Cenozoic struc-
tures in the Oriente foreland indicates that the network of
basement faults and associated folds comprise two
immense lobes, which meet at a structural reentrant
crossed by the Curaray River (Figure 1) and extend from
there westward to the Puyo depression (Figure 1). This
vaguely defined zone is about 30 km wide. Within it there
are abundant, short, variably oriented Cenozoic faults and
associated folds. The zone separates the dominantly north-
northeastward structural grain of the northern Oriente
basin and Putamayo basin from the dominantly north-
northwestward grain of the southern part of the basin and
Marañon basin.
We lack deep crustal reflection seismic data that might
delineate the fashion in which the network of Oriente
basin basement faults are adjusted in the lithosphere.
Focal depths for sub-Andean foreland earthquakes in
Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador are in the range of 8-38 km,
indicating that all of the crust and possibly the uppermost
mantle are involved in deformation (Suarez et al., 1983).
At those depths, the basement faults may meet a zone of
intracrustal detachment or shear, possibly inherited from
Proterozoic terrane fabrics, similiar in style and kinematics
to the Andean foreland of western Argentina (Jordan and
Allmendinger, 1986; Cahill et al., 1992).
CONCLUSIONS
Reflection seismic data from the northern Oriente basin
display families of structures having different ages and
styles that involve Precambrian crystalline basement and
Phanerozoic cover rocks. We interpret these cratonic struc-
570 Balkwill et al.
tural elements as products of episodic plate events along
the Ecuadorian margin of the South American craton.
Episodic terrane accretion established the Amazon
craton in the Proterozoic (Litherland et al., 1985; deMatos
and Brown, 1992). The Oriente basin Paleozoic strata
were deposited on a widespread shallow marine shelf
(Baldock, 1982); the regional tectonic setting of the basin
during deposition of these rocks has not been elucidated.
Half-grabens containing continental red clastics may
be remnants of a Triassic (and Permian?) rift domain,
linked westward to the Gondwana rift system demon-
strated in the eastern Andes of Ecuador, Colombia, and
Peru (Jaillard et al., 1990; Aspden and Litherland, 1992).
The Triassic rift elements and the Paleozoic and Precam-
brian rocks lying under and between them were reverse
faulted and uplifted during a phase of widespread
intraplate convergence within the western South
American craton. This was possibly associated with plate
marginal transpression in the eastern Cordillera Real in
the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. The Jurassic and
older rocks and structures were erosionally planed prior
to deposition of basal Cretaceous (Aptian?) Hollin sand-
stones.
A second phase of transpressional convergence in the
Cordillera Real in Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary time
was concurrent with obduction of oceanic crust now
lying under the Western Cordillera and Costa. This
convergence prompted development in the Oriente
basin of a network of low-relief basement reverse faults,
mainly having northward strikes. Propagation of the
faults generated elongate folds in lower Tertiary and
older cover rocks. Late Cenozoic accelerated conver-
gence of the South American and Pacific (Nazca) plates is
continuing to accentuate the relief on some of the
basement-rooted reverse faults and their associated
folds. Some small-scale intrastratal detachment may
have taken place locally as adjustment to inversion of
basement faults (Figure 5). However, we have seen no
evidence in the seismic profiles from the northern
Oriente basin of the large-scale, thin-skinned thrust
structures seen in the sub-Andean foothills of the Llanos
basin of Colombia (Cooper et al., 1995).
We interpret the evidence from the regional seismic
grid to indicate that the basement under the Oriente
basin has a complex, anisotropic fabric consisting of large
and small basement blocks that lie above a deep, region-
ally distributed intrabasement detachment zone. This
basement fabric was probably inherited from Proterozoic
tectonic events. The fabric is capable of large-scale adjust-
ment to regional intraplate stress regimes, whether in
divergence or convergence.
The relatively subtle structures of the Oriente basin,
rooted in a zone of basement delamination, can be
viewed as embryonic examples of the types of large-
scale, high-relief basement-involved foreland deforma-
tion spectacularly displayed in some other sub-Andean
regions, such as the Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina
(Jordan and Allmendinger, 1986), and in the western
United States (Lowell, 1977).
Large oil fields in the Oriente basin are in Cretaceous
reservoirs (mainly Hollin and Napo sandstones) on
northward-elongated, low-relief folds developed above
the basement-rooted reverse faults (e.g., Canfield et al.,
1982). We have shown that some of the structures origi-
nated in the Late Cretaceous, some in the early Tertiary
and have since been dormant, and others have rejuve-
nated or moved initially in the late Cenozoic and were
episodically rejuvenated in the Cenozoic. Critical rela-
tionships may exist in terms of the ages of fold closure
and the times of regional oil migration and charging of
traps.
Acknowledgments The writers thank Petroecuador and
Petro-Canada for permission to publish this material, much of
which resulted from a collaborative Petroecuador/Petro-Canada
regional project in 1988. We thank reviewers Norman
Haimila, Robert Meneley, and Howard White for their
constructive comments.
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