Clockwise Block Rotations in the Perija Mountains, Venezuela

Paleomagnetic analyses of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks (8 sites, 115 samples) from the Perija Mountains, Venezuela, yield well-grouped directions of both polarities. Fold tests imply that the magnetization of the Jurassic La Quinta Formation is pre-mid-Cretaceous in age and that the Lower Cretaceous Cogollo Group acquired its magnetization prior to its mid-Tertiary deformation. These data as well as the results from the Cretaceous Apon and La Luna Formations yield consistent northeast or southwest declinations and inclinations corresponding to the present latitude of the sampling area. The clockwise rotations indicated by these data are interpreted to be the result of rotation of fault-bounded blocks in a left-lateral strike-slip zone. Faults such as the Cogollo, La Ge, and Totumo faults which intersect the Perija-Tigre fault at low angles, had initially a north-northwest strike. The Late Oligocene northwest-southeast compression which initiated the uplift of the Perija Mountains rotated these faults to their present north-northeast orientation imparting the observed left-lateral slip. Our paleomagnetic data measure the corresponding rotation of the fault-bounded blocks. Model calculations suggest that a displacement on these faults of less than ten kilometers would be sufficient to cause the observed approximately 45[degrees] clockwise rotations.