Outcrop-scale natural examples of structures from the southern Central Andes

Abstract

As regional-scale structures give useful insights to interpret seismic data, the outcrop-scale provides further details on the complexity of fault, fold, and fracture systems which are hard to recognize in the subsurface data. These systems play an important role in the development of fractured reservoirs, pathways and seals. Here we present examples of different structures at the centimeter to meterscale, all of them from the southern Central Andes and related to its evolution. Examples of outcrop-scale structures, which help to understand the kinematic, reservoir quality, and fracture connectivity in hydrocarbon reservoirs, show deformation patterns in transfer zone, in the hanging-wall and footwall of nonreactivated and reactivated normal faults, and at the tip of a reverse fault, as well as the relationship between folding, faulting, fractures, and veins.