
The Eastern Venezuela Basin is major
sedimentary basin
Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subsidence ...
in northeastern
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
that contains copious
petroleum reserves. The basin lies between several geological structures. To the south it bounds
Guiana Shield
The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...
, to the north
metamorphic rocks of the easternmost
Andes, to the west the
Espino Graben, to the northeast the
Barbados accretionary complex and to the east it bounds to the
oceanic crust of the
Atlantic Ocean.
References
Further reading
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{{Sedimentary basins of Venezuela
Geology of Trinidad and Tobago
Geology of Venezuela
Geography of Monagas
Geography of Delta Amacuro
Sedimentary basins of Venezuela