GEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE KUNA YALA, PANAMA

The formation of the Isthmus of Panama was one of the most important geological events to occur in the last few million years. Two previously adjacent seas were separated and two continents united driving climate and environmental change and giving rise to extinctions and the migration of plants and animals across both continents. Here we present a geological map of a previously not well mapped area of the Isthmus, the Kuna Yala region along the northern Caribbean coast of Panama. We find that the region can be divided into roughly 13 distinct geological zones, comprised of many of the elements of a classic ophiolite deep sea sediment complex, including pillow basalts, pillow basalts with intrusive dikes, and an underlying gabbroic complex.

This map presented in both its English and Spanish versions is part of an educational outreach project sponsored by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the SENACYT in collaboration with University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota. The map is intended to provide a general geological overview of the Kuna Yala Region. It is based on a combination of various previously published documents on the general geology of the Darian of Panama and recent and more detailed geological mapping of the Kuna Yala conducted by a Smithsonian Institute expedition into the region in the fall of 2008. The Spanish version of this map is intended for distribution among remote indigenous communities in the Kuna Yala.