Stratigraphy and fauna of the Agua Salada group, State of Falcon, Venezuela
Geological Society of America Memoirs
32: 1-219
Publication
The type area of the Tertiary Agua Salada group is at El Mene de Acosta and Pozon, State of Falcón, Venezuela; it is named after Quebrada Agua Salada, Pozon and is approximately 1442 meters thick. It is subdivided lithologically into the San Lorenzo formation (two members), approximately 400 meters thick, type locality El Mene de Acosta, and the Pozon formation (three members), approximately 1042 meters thick, type locality Pozon. Fossil evidence indicates that the Agua Salada group is Middle Oligocene (Rupelian) to Middle Miocene (Tortonian). The San Lorenzo formation is considered Middle to Upper Oligocene and the Pozon formation Upper Oligocene to Middle Miocene.
Biostratigraphically (foraminiferal) the sequence comprises the “Uvigerinella” sparsicostata zone (Middle Oligocene), Acostian stage (mainly Upper Oligocene), Araguatian stage (Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene), and Lucian stage (Lower to Middle Miocene). Type locality of the “Uvigerinella” sparsicostata zone and Acostian is El Mene de Acosta; type locality of the Araguatian and Lucian is Pozon.
Correlation between Eastern Falcón and certain Oligocene-Miocene foraminiferal sequences in the Caribbean region and tropical America is displayed in Table 15.
Ecologically, the enrivonment—in comparison with present-day conditions-appears to represent deposition on a Continental Shelf in tropical latitudes at depths ranging from 30 to 200–600 meters. Estimates of depths are as follows: “Uvigerinella” sparsicostata zone, less than 100 meters; Acostian and Araguatian, between 200 and 600 meters; Lucian, at depths gradually decreasing from 200–600 to less than 30 meters.
Two hundred and thirty-nine species and varieties of Foraminifera, of which four are described as new, are listed and discussed in the part of the report devoted to systematic paleontology.
