XIII Congreso Peruano de Geología.

Resúmenes Extendidos
Sociedad Geológica del Perú

NEW MICROFOSSIL EVIDENCE FOR A LATE EOCENE AGE OF THE OTUMA

FORMATION (SOUTHERN PERU)

1 2 3 4 5
Thomas J. De Vries , Yanina Narváez , Annika Sanfilippo , Norberto Malumian & Pedro Tapia
1
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 Usa
2
C.I.C.E.S.E., Departamento de Geología, Km. 107, Carretera Tijuana, 22860. Ensenada, B.C., México
3
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California - San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 Usa
4
Dirección Nacional del Servicio Geológico (CONICET), 1107 Buenos Aires, Argentina
5
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Facultad de Ciencias, Laboratorios de Investigación y Desarrollo, Lima 31, Perú

INTRODUCTION

The Otuma Formation encompasses a depositional sequence of Paleogene marine sedimentary strata
that crops out in the Pisco Basin of southern Peru between the Paracas Peninsula and the Rio Ica (De
Vries, 1998). The Otuma sequence unconformably overlies tuffaceous marine siltstone and sandstone
of the Paracas Formation and unconformably underlies the basal transgressive sandstone of the
uppermost Oligocene to middle Miocene Chilcatay Formation. The base of the Otuma Formation
consists of yellow-orange coarse-grained sandstone with fossils of mollusks. The remainder of the
formation consists of tuffaceous fine-grained sandstone with siliceous and calcareous microfossils,
thin-shelled pectinid bivalves, fish scales, and vertebrate remains. The type section was measured
along a road that passes from the entrance of the Reserva Nacional de Paracas to the salt mines of
Salinas de Otuma (Figure 1), with other outcrops recognized on the Paracas Peninsula, in hills north of
Salinas de Otuma, in depressions near the informally designated Cerro Sombrero, and along the
abandoned road between Carhuas and Comotrana (DeVries, 1998).

Fig. 1. Localities with outcrops of the Otuma Formation in southern Peru.

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The age of the Otuma Formation was first thought to be late early Oligocene, based on the occurrence
of Oligocene foraminifera (plankton zone P21A, about 30 to 29 Ma; Ibaraki, 1993) and poorly
preserved late Eocene to early Oligocene diatoms (DeVries, 1998) near the type locality. The
discovery of a diverse Otuma molluscan fauna at Bajada del Diablo (DeVries, 2004) that included
many species also found in the upper Eocene Chira-Verdun sequence of northern Peru (Hannah &
Israelsky, 1925; Olsson, 1928, 1930, 1931; Narváez & Petri, 2001) indicated the Otuma sequence
might have a late Eocene age.

NEW DATA

New outcrops belonging to the Otuma Formation have been discovered at Quebrada Perdida, Cerros
Colorado, and Ullujaya (Figure 1). Mollusks from basal sandstone beds include Peruchilus culberti
Olsson, 1931, and Xenophora carditigera Nielsen & DeVries, 2002, both of which are index species
for the Otuma Formation. Several microfossil species have been recovered from fine-grained
sandstone in the upper part of these and previously known Otuma sections, as well as from the
underlying Paracas Formation (Table I).

Table I. Microfossil Data from Samples of Paleogene Marine Sediments in the Pisco Basin.

Sample Number Species Age Range(s)1 Estimated Age of

R=radiolarians N=nannofossils Sample
DV 591-1 R Artophormis gracilis 36.3 Ma to latest Oligocene Eocene/Oligocene
(Otuma Fm., boundary
Ullujaya)
DV 1731-2 R Artophormis gracilis 36.3 Ma to latest Oligocene Late middle Eocene
(Paracas Fm., Cryptocarpium ornatum 42.3 to 33.6 Ma (with contamination
Quebrada Perdida) Lithocyclia aristotelis 39.7 to 33.5 Ma by A. gracilis?)
Lithocyclia ocellus Early to middle Eocene
DV 1723-1 N Coccolithus pelagicus Wide-ranging; cold water Late middle to late
(Otuma Fm., Cribrocentrum reticulatum 43.7 to 34.2 Ma Eocene
Ullujaya) Reticulofenestra bisectus 40.4 to 23.9 Ma
Reticulofenestra umbilicus 43.7 to 32.3 Ma
DV 1171-1 N Coccolithus formosus 55.0 to 31.5 Ma Late Eocene
(Otuma Fm., S. Coccolithus pelagicus Wide-ranging; cold water
Sombrero Valley) Cribrocentrum reticulatum 43.7 to 34.2 Ma; abundant
Reticulofenestra bisectus 40.4 to 23.9 Ma
Sphenolithus radians 55.0 to 34.2 Ma
DV 1125-1 N Coccolithus pelagicus Wide-ranging; cold water Late middle Eocene to
(Otuma Fm., Cerro Reticulofenestra bisectus 40.4 to 23.9 Ma early Oligocene
Sombrero) Reticulofenestra umbilicus 43.7 to 32.3 Ma
DV 1173-5 N Reticulofenestra bisectus 40.4 to 23.9 Ma Late middle Eocene to
Otuma Fm., S. Reticulofenestra umbilicus 43.7 to 32.3 Ma late Eocene
Sombrero Valley) Sphenolithus radians 55.0 to 34.2 Ma
DV 1112-2 N Coccolithus formosus 55.0 to 31.5 Ma Late middle to late
(top 5cm of Paracas Coccolithus pelagicus Wide-ranging; cold water Eocene
Fm., ENE Cerro Cribrocentrum reticulatum 43.7 Ma to 34.2 Ma
Sombrero) Helicosphaera spp.
Reticulofenestra bisectus 40.4 to 23.9 Ma
Zygrhablithus bijugatus 55.0 to 19.2 Ma
DV 1173-3 N Blackites sp. Middle to late Eocene Middle Eocene
(Paracas Fm., S. Chiasmolithus solitus 55.0 to 40.4 Ma
Sombrero Valley) Coccolithus formosus 55.0 to 31.5 Ma
Coccolithus pelagicus Wide-ranging; cold water
Helicosphaera lophota 52.8 to 36 Ma
Helicosphaera seminulum 52.8 to 40.4 Ma
Reticulofenestra umbilicus 43.7 to 32.3 Ma
Pontosphaera multipora 55.0 to 5.6 Ma
Discoaster deflandrei 53.6 to 15.6 Ma
Neococcolithes minutus 51.5 to 34.2 Ma
1
Radiolarian age ranges from Nigrini et al. (2005); nannofossil age ranges from INA database (2004).

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Benthic and planktonic foraminifera were abundant and well preserved in some samples, but the taxa
(species of Bolivina, Uvigerina, Nonion) were not useful for assigning ages, indicating only that the
Paracas and Otuma fauna lived in cool water. Diatoms were fragmented and of little use for age
assignment.

OLD DATA RE-EVALUATED

A continuous section of Paleogene strata was revisited near Ullujaya (Figure 2) to evaluate the
significance of three ash beds with 40Ar-39Ar dates of 37.2, 36.5, and 35.7 Ma (L. Snee, personal
communication, 1987; DeVries, 1998). Contrary to previous impressions, it was apparent that the ash
beds lie above a concretionary sandstone horizon that constitutes the base of a depositional sequence.
Underlying the sequence are at least 75 meters of an older sequence that includes basal sandstone beds
with specimens of the middle to late Eocene Turritella lagunillasensis Rivera, 1957, and Glycymeris
arquilloensis Rivera, 1957. These beds most likely correspond to the Paracas Formation. The ash-
bearing beds, therefore, should be within the lower Otuma Formation. More than a hundred meters
higher in the section, the Otuma sequence is truncated by a regionally extensive angular unconformity
marked by a thin lag of iron-manganese nodules and numerous boulders of granite. The boulder beds
have mollusks associated with the younger Chilcatay Formation.

Fig. 2. Composite photograph of section near Ullujaya showing unconformity separating Paracas and Otuma
formations and two of three 40Ar-39Ar dated ash beds.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The latest microfossil data confirm what the Bajada del Diablo mollusks had indicated: a late Eocene
age for the Otuma Formation. Radiometrically dated ash beds near the base of the Otuma sequence
suggest Otuma deposition commenced at about 38 Ma; microfossil data suggest deposition may have
persisted until the earliest Oligocene. Some discrepancies remain and will need to be addressed with
further sampling, e.g., the Oligocene age of foraminifera from the Otuma section north of Salinas de
Otuma (Ibaraki, 1993), the very late Eocene age of the uppermost centimeters of the Paracas
Formation near Cerro Sombrero (sample DV 1112-2), and the presence of the radiolarian,
Artophormis gracilis, in a sample of sediment from the Paracas Formation (sample DV 1731-2).

These new and re-interpreted old data show that the hiatus represented by the Paracas-Otuma
unconformity amounts to about one or two million years, probably between about 40 Ma and 38 Ma.
Near the Carhuas-Comotrana road, at the edge of the Chilcatay hills, the unconformity is angular and
is marked by a scattering of large boulders of igneous rock. Smaller igneous-rock boulders, some
moderately rounded, some moderately angular, are found on the same unconformity between the
Chilcatay hills and the Paracas Peninsula. The temporal interval of emergence, uplift, and erosion
implied by these boulder beds may correspond to the widespread late middle to late Eocene Incaic
compressional tectonic event in the Central Andes (Sébrier et al., 1988). The succeeding hiatus
represented by the Otuma-Chilcatay unconformity spans about eight million years, from about 33 Ma
to 25 Ma (DeVries, 1998; this report). This temporal interval includes a prolonged period with
18
globally high values of ∂O in planktonic and benthic foraminifera, the Early Oligocene Glacial
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Sociedad Geológica del Perú

Maximum at 33.4 Ma, the opening of the Drake Passage, and the development of ice sheets in
Antarctica (Carter et al., 2000). A eustatic lowering of sea level during the Oligocene would explain
the Otuma-Chilcatay unconformity and absence of sediments from most of the Oligocene on the
southern Peruvian margin.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank Mario Urbina (Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de
Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru) for his assistance and
expertise in the field and Larry Snee (United States Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado USA) for
providing radiometric ages for the ash beds. The satellite photograph used in Figure 1 was modified
from a Google Earth image.

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