ARCO IRIS Formación SUNSASIANO

Autor: Litherland, et. al., 1982. (Informe Nº 10)

Localidad tipo:

Descripción original:
This unit, named after the Arco Iris waterfall of the Río Paucerna, is the basal formation of the Huanchaca Group. Thicknesses
from the basal unconformity to the overlying Cuatro Carpas Formation vary from ca 100 m in the Río Verde gorge and in the SW
of the serrania, to ca 300 m in the NW in the region of Cta. Arco Iris. The feature which distinguishes the Arco Iris from the
overlying Cuatro Carpas Formation is the dominance of sandstone, rather than quartzite, as the arenaceous element. The contact
between the units is well defined in the Rio Verde gorge from where the overlying Cuatro Carpas quartzite can be traced as a
resistant scarp-feature to the NW before turning south to form the eastern escarpment of the Paucerna valley and joining up with
the main western escarpment of the serrania. Thus though outcrops of the Arco Iris Formation are found everywhere at the base
of the main escarpment they only underlie summit levels in the north of the serrania. Measured sections of the Arco Iris
Formation are given in Appendices 2-7 and only a summary of the stratigraphy is given here. In the Rio Verde the basal
unconformity is not exposed but there is 85 m of banded purpliesh sandstone (Appendix 2). Moving round the serrania towards
the Rio Paucerna section there is a marked increase in the thickness of the sandstone formation (300 m) coupled with an
apparent thickening of the basal conglomerate to 30 m (Appendix 3). In the intervening sections; Quebrada Garrapata, Arroyo
Los Petos, Quebrada Libertad, and Quebrada Las Petas, there are red- or brown-weathering sandstones, succeeded by beds of
brown mudstone in Arroyo Los Petos (Power and others, 1982). Conglomerates are well exposed about 300 m upstream from
Remancito and in Quebrada Bella Flor where they locally occur in channels within brown-weathering sand-stones. Tracing the
formation southwards from the Rio Paucerna along the western escarpment the thickness of the unit decreases from 300 m to
100 m. The lower levels of the formation are occupied by quartzites and there are also belts of semipelite and black mudstones
before the sandstones are encountered (Appendices 4-7).

Léxico Estratigráfico de Bolivia Formación Arco Iris - 1

R. Suárez-Soruco, 2000