Garrapatas Fault Zone

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Garrapatas Fault Zone is an inactive dextral oblique thrust fault in Colombia’s Chocó and Valle del Cauca. It runs about 138 km (86 miles) in a crescent shape from east-northeast to west-southwest, with a strike of roughly 061 degrees. The fault sits between the Western Ranges of the Colombian Andes and the Serranía de los Paraguas, west of the city of Buga, and is named after the Garrapatas River. It cuts through oceanic volcanic and sedimentary rocks and features a distinctive V-shaped valley along the upper Garrapatas and Las Vueltas Rivers. It likely connects with the Argelia Fault and tends to align drainage and parallel streams. The fault’s right-lateral movement is unusual for a region where many faults move left-laterally.