Maracaibo Basin

Maracaibo Basin
Depresión del lago de Maracaibo
Geographic/Natural Region
Catatumbo lightning
Country	Venezuela
States	Zulia, Mérida, Trujillo, Táchira
Coordinates	9°N 71°W / 9°N 71°W / 9; -71Coordinates: 9°N 71°W / 9°N 71°W / 9; -71
Highest point	Andean piedmont
- elevation	200 m (656 ft)
Lowest point	Lagunillas, Zulia
- elevation	−12 m (−39 ft)
Area	36,803 km2 (14,210 sq mi)
Geographic map of the natural region of Lake Maracaibo Depression.

The Maracaibo Basin, also known as Lake Maracaibo natural region, Lake Maracaibo depression or Lake Maracaibo Lowlands, is a foreland basin and one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela, found in the northwestern corner of Venezuela in South America. Covering over 36,657 square km, it is a hydrocarbon-rich region that has produced over 30 billion bbl of oil with an estimated 44 billion bbl yet to be recovered. The basin is characterized by a large shallow tidal estuary, Lake Maracaibo, located near its center. The Maracaibo basin has a complex tectonic history that dates back to the Jurassic period with multiple evolution stages. Despite its complexity, these major tectonic stages were carefully preserved within its stratigraphy. This makes The Maracaibo basin one of the most valuable basins for reconstructing South America's early tectonic history.

The Maracaibo basin is surrounded by two mountain ranges, the Méridas Andes to the southeast and the Sierra de Perija to the west, with the Gulf of Venezuela to the north. The basin lies within a region of deformation created by the interactions of the Caribbean and South American plate boundaries. These interactions include the collision of the Caribbean plate with the South American plate in the Cenozoic era, which formed a belt of foreland basins across northern South America. There are three main fault zones associated with the basin: the Santa Marta-Bucaramanga fault zone, the Boconó fault zone, and the Oca fault zone. These strike-slip zones create a v-shape around the basin which form a smaller plate known as the Maracaibo block. Within this v-shaped wedge, multiple smaller fault zones are present including the Icotea strike-slip fault. Thus the Maracaibo basin geometry is dominated by strike-slip tectonics and subordinate folding with a main syncline, the Maracaibo syncline, striking north-south through the center of Lake Maracaibo.

The formation of the Maracaibo basin began 160 Ma with the North American, South American, and Caribbean plates playing key roles in the evolution of the basin. It developed into the present-day foreland basin via multiple stages throughout time: Late Jurassic, Late Cretaceous, Paleocene-Eocene, and the Oligocene-Holocene stages.