Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements suggest the existence of a rigid Panama-Costa Rica microplate that is moving northward relative to the stable Caribbean plate. Northward motion of Central America relative to the Caribbean plate is independently suggested by the April 1991 Costa Rica earthquake, active folding in the North Panama deformed belt, and a south-dipping Wadati-Benioff zone beneath Panama. Panama may also be continuing to collide eastward with the northern Andes. Rapid subduction is occurring at the Middle America (72 mm/yr), Ecuador (70 mm/yr), and Colombia (50 mm/yr) trenches. The northern Andes are moving northeastward relative to stable South America. Preliminary GPS results also suggest Caribbean-North Andean convergence and an independent North Nazca plate. About 6 Ma the Panama-Choco island arc collided with the northwestern margin of South America, eventually forming a land bridge between the Americas; closed the Pacific-Caribbean seaway, changing ocean circulation patterns and perhaps the world’s climate; folded the East Panama deformed belt; and uplifted the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. An interpretation of the paleo-Romeral suture in southern Colombia as a low-angle fault dipping to the west into the lower crust under the Cordillera Occidental is compatible with seismic velocity and gravity data. During the Late Cretaceous the Western Cordillera oceanic terrane was obducted eastward on the fault system over continental crust.

The four major Cenozoic tectonic phases in the Sierra de Perijá and adjacent basins are the early Eocene tectonic phase, the middle Eocene Caribbean orogeny, the late Oligocene phase, and the late Miocene to present Andean orogeny. Ages of unconformities associated with particularly rapid regional uplift during these phases are early Eocene (53 m.y.), middle Eocene (45 m.y.), late Oligocene (25 m.y.), and Pliocene (3 m.y.). Northwest-southeast compression may have commenced in the Perijá and the Maracaibo Basin as early as the early Eocene. By the middle Eocene the Macoa-Totumo arch had begun to form during intense alpine-type folding and thrusting to the east in Falcón and Lara. During the late Oligocene phase, the Palmar area was uplifted and the most important structural features for hydrocarbon accumulation in the Maracaibo Basin developed. The late Oligocene phase initiated a basement block tectonic style that culminated during the Pliocene in the northwest thrusting of the Santa Marta massif, Sierra de Perijá, and Venezuelan Andes over the adjacent basins. The main uplift of the Sierra de Perijá occurred during the late Miocene-Pliocene Andean orogeny. Right-lateral oblique-slip movement of 90 to 100 km on the Oca fault and left-lateral oblique-slip movement of 100 km on the Santa Marta fault were caused by late Tertiary overthrusting in the Sierra de Perijá and Santa Marta massif. The northwest-southeast shortening that uplifted the Santa Marta massif, Sierra de Perijá, and Venezuelan Andes is related to Caribbean-North Andean convergence along the South Caribbean marginal fault. During the Pliocene the Panama volcanic arc collided with South America. The North Andean block became detached from the South American plate and is being wedged slowly to the north between the rapidly converging Nazca, Caribbean, and South American plates. The convergence of the three plates has produced rapid subduction at the Colombia trench (6.4 ± 0.7 cm/yr; 088° ± 7°), slow subduction at the South Caribbean marginal fault (1.7 ± 0.7 cm/yr; 128° ± 24°), and right-lateral shear (1.0 ± 0.2 cm/yr; 235° ± 5°) on the Boconó and East Andean fault systems.