The Palestina Fault ( Spanish : Falla de Palestina ) is a regional sinistral oblique thrust fault in the departments of Antioquia , Caldas and Bolívar in central Colombia . The fault has a total length of 369.6 kilometres (229.7 mi) and runs along an average north-northeast to south-southwest strike of 017.8 ± 11 along the Central Ranges of the Colombian Andes .
5-652: The Palestina Fault extends from the Serranía de San Lucas in the department of Antioquia in the north, to the Nevado del Ruiz volcanic zone in the south. The Otú Norte and Bagre Norte Faults splay off the Palestina Fault. It mainly extends along the eastern slope of the Central Ranges , displacing Paleozoic crystalline metamorphic rocks and, in lesser amounts, Mesozoic plutonic rocks . The oldest rocks are mainly in
10-515: A depressed block ( pull-apart basin ). Based on stratigraphic evidence, dextral movement of about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) is reported, which probably occurred before Quaternary time. However, the Quaternary movement is believed to be sinistral. Before Miocene time, most of the faults of northern and western Colombia probably had dextral movement. The main volcanoes Nevado del Ruiz , Nevado de Santa Isabel and Nevado El Cisne are located above
15-630: Is part of the Magdalena–Urabá moist forests ecoregion , with a rainforest ecology that includes large monkey and bird populations. It is a 'forest reserve' that has been recommended for protection, but has been opened to mining by the Colombian government, as the mountains have large deposits of gold , emeralds , nickel and mercury . AngloGold Ashanti has been exploring in the area since 2004, causing tensions with local small-scale miners. The ELN guerrilla group enforced forest protection in
20-555: The fault. Gómez Tapias, Jorge; Montes Ramírez, Nohora E.; Almanza Meléndez, María F.; Alcárcel Gutiérrez, Fernando A.; Madrid Montoya, César A.; Diederix, Hans (2015). Geological Map of Colombia . Servicio Geológico Colombiano . pp. 1–212 . Retrieved 2019-10-29 . Serran%C3%ADa de San Lucas The Serranía de San Lucas is a forested massif in the Bolívar Department of northern Colombia that reaches heights of 2,600 m above sea level. It
25-580: The western block, which elevates a probable Miocene erosion surface whose eroded remnants are characterized by aligned flat narrow benches and spurs. The fault forms outstanding slope break between the western uplifted block and the eastern peneplain surface. In the western block, there are flat bench-like remnants of a Tertiary erosion surface. The fault zone is characterized by fault scarps , saddles, linear ridges, displaced streams, shutter ridges, and aligned springs. Some topographic features show evidence of sinistral offset. Locally, two fault traces bound
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