title: Middle Miocene closure of the Central American Seaway.
abstract: Uranium-lead geochronology in detrital zircons and provenance analyses in eight boreholes and two surface stratigraphic sections in the northern Andes provide insight into the time of closure of the Central American Seaway. The timing of this closure has been correlated with Plio-Pleistocene global oceanographic, atmospheric, and biotic events. We found that a uniquely Panamanian Eocene detrital zircon fingerprint is pronounced in middle Miocene fluvial and shallow marine strata cropping out in the northern Andes but is absent in underlying lower Miocene and Oligocene strata. We contend that this fingerprint demonstrates a fluvial connection, and therefore the absence of an intervening seaway, between the Panama arc and South America in middle Miocene times; the Central American Seaway had vanished by that time.
authors: Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. cmontes@uniandes.edu.co.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Montes
authors: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Cardona
authors: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Jaramillo
authors: Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Pardo
authors: University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004, USA.
authors: J C
authors: JC
authors: Silva
authors: Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Valencia
authors: Corporación Geológica Ares, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Ayala
authors: Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors: L C
authors: LC
authors: Pérez-Angel
authors: Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: Rodriguez-Parra
authors: Ecopetrol, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Ramirez
authors: Ecopetrol, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Niño