NEOTECTONICS AFFECTING UNDERGROUND WATERS CASE OF NW CARIBE COLOMBIA: FAR FROM RHETORIC CLOSER TO REALITY

Some tectonic events that we recognized during a Quaternary Geology Course held in the city of Medellín, Colombia, by the geologist William Page, allowed us to understand different aspects that are important to share about a) coastal deformations as a natural hazard, b) production of oil/gas as a technological hazard, c) CREATE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITIC as social/anthropic HAZARDS. In addition, d) air pollution as natural hazard both against and in favor of the health and mental health, and e) affect groundwater as a natural disaster.

One of the phenomena, which the author has been studying previously and presented poster at GSA Meetings is about the Northwest of Colombia Caribbean area affecting and folding lithosphere, specifically to Tertiary rocks.

The field trip has the fundamental part of the research visiting the area during different years because the phenomena there are interesting.

The hypothesis is that groundwater could not be planned in these unstable geological conditions.

Until now the author had not associated in his GSA publications with groundwater. In this study, the author presents only the effect on groundwater for this specific GSA SC Meeting topic with enough pictures for a poster.

The potential usufructs for the use of groundwater in several regions close and far from the NW of Colombia Caribbean Sea coast, when the Caribbean plate moves under South America creating prominence in the form of LONGED domes along the shore (could easily be assimilated with closed anticlines by simple geomorphology) or punctual domes; These geoforms are known as clay diapirs and when the internal pressure of the material contain is sufficient against the crust, the dome could break at the top and form large diameter mud volcanoes (tens of meters diameter). They are not present of the same magnitude as in the United States, only in the southwestern USA these craters are formed with a few centimeters in diameter.

The geological phenomenon presents extreme dangers for the coastal regions, containing oil or gas fluids, affecting the continental groundwater since they increase their salinity and present a high probability of explosion when trying to be drilled causing big flooding like in Indonesia 2010.