Cariaco

Ecuador Offshore

Esmeraldas / Caraquez Geographic Basins

On this tentative geological interpretation of a seismic line of Ecuador offshore (southern part of Esmeraldas-Caraquez geographic basins), a post-Eocene forearc basin, highly deformed by strike-slip faults, is quite obvious in the overriding lithospheric plate (South America Plate). The descending or subducting plate is the Nazca plate , which forces its cover, formed, mainly, by deepwater pelagic sediments, to plunge too. The strike-slip faults seem terminate, at depth, on the decollement surface beneath the Gondwana continental margin.