The Córdoba-Navarco Fault () is a sinistral

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

in the department of Quindío in west-central

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The fault has a total length of and runs along an average north-northeast to south-southwest

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

of 018.5 ± 4 in the

Central Ranges Central Ranges (code CER) is an Australian bioregion, with an area of 101,640.44 square kilometres (39,244 sq mi) spreading across two states and one territory: South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. The fault segment pertaining to the megaregional Romeral Fault System is a set of two faults that are active, causing the major 1999 Armenia earthquake with approximately 1185 fatalities.

Etymology

The fault is named after

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

and the Navarco River in Quindío.Paris et al., 2000a, p.25

Description

The fault section is formed by the Córdoba and Navarco Faults, which are eastern strands of Romeral Fault System, south of the city of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

. These faults lie within the epicenter area of the Armenia earthquake of January 25, 1999. The faults extend through sheared cataclastic and undeformed

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic and sedimentary

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

oceanic rocks, cropping out on the eastern slope of the

Central Ranges Central Ranges (code CER) is an Australian bioregion, with an area of 101,640.44 square kilometres (39,244 sq mi) spreading across two states and one territory: South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.Córdoba Complex from the Quebradagrande Complex.Mapa Geológico de Quindío, 2000 Well preserved fault trace controls stream drainages. The Córdoba-Navarco Fault forms fault saddles and eroded

fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrastin ...

s. Neotectonic features are not very outstanding. Slopes in this part of the Central Ranges are rather steep, so erosion rate is high. The fault terminates in the south against the

Ibagué Fault The Ibagué Fault () is a major dextral slightly oblique strike-slip fault in the department of Tolima in central Colombia. The fault has a total length of and runs along an average east-northeast to west-southwest strike of 067.9 ± 11 cross-c ...

.Paris et al., 2000b

Activity

On January 25, 1999, a major earthquake hit the capitals of Quindío, Armenia, and Risaralda, Pereira. The earthquake had a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

of 6.1 and an intensity of X and occurred at a depth of . The natural disaster caused around 1185 casualties in central Colombia and was the strongest earthquake in 16 years.Various Authors, 1999, p.10

References

Bibliography

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