The Northern Andes of Colombia is a key locality for understanding tectonic inversion of symmetric rifts. A review of available data on structural geometry and deformation timing, and new thermochronology and provenance data from selected localities, enable the construction of balanced cross-sections and shortening budgets. During early deformation in the Palaeocene, most shortening was focused in the western sector of the orogen, in the Central Cordillera and the Magdallena Valley, although widely spaced and mild inversion occur in areas as far to the east as the Llanos Basin. After a period of tectonic quiescence in the Middle Eocene, deformation resumed across a former early Mesozoic graben in the Eastern Cordillera. Peak shortening rates and out-of-sequence reactivation of the main inversion faults were in place in latest Miocene time, during a phase of topographical growth. Our results indicate that coeval activation of basement highs and adjacent slower-slip shortcuts appear to be characteristic of inverted symmetric grabens. However, before reactivation and brittle faulting occur, strain hardening is required. Deformation rates in the Eastern Cordillera correlate with the westwards velocity of the South American Plate. A threshold convergence rate of approximately 2 cm year−1 seems to be necessary to activate shortening in the upper plate.

The inversion of Mesozoic extensional structures in the Northern Andes has controlled the location of syn-orogenic successions and the dispersal of detritus since latest Maastrichtian time. Our results are supported by detailed geological mapping, integrated provenance (petrography, heavy minerals, geochronology) analysis and chronostratigraphical correlation (palynological and geochronology data) of 13 areas with Palaeogene strata across the central segment of the Eastern Cordillera. Spatial and temporal variation of sedimentation rates and provenance data indicate that mechanisms driving the location of marginal and intraplate uplifts and tectonic subsidence vary among syn-orogenic depocentres. In the late Maastrichtian–mid-Palaeocene time, crustal tilting of the Central Cordillera favoured reverse reactivation of the western border of the former extensional Cretaceous basin. The hanging wall of the reactivated fault separated two depocentres: a western depocentre (in the Magdalena Valley) and an eastern depocentre (presently along the axial zone of the Eastern Cordillera, Llanos foothills and Llanos Basin). In late Palaeocene–early Eocene time, as eastern subduction of the Caribbean Plate and intraplate magmatics advanced eastwards, reactivation of older structures migrated eastwards up to the Llanos Basin and disrupted the eastern depocentre. In early Eocene time, these three depocentres were separated by two low-amplitude uplifts that exposed dominantly Cretaceous sedimentary cover. Syn-orogenic detrital sediments supplied from the eastwards-tilted Central Cordillera reached areas of the axial domain of the Eastern Cordillera, whereas unstable metamorphic and sedimentary fragments recorded in the easternmost depocentre were supplied by basement-cored uplifts with Cretaceous and Palaeozoic sedimentary cover reported in the southern Llanos Basin. This tectonic configuration of low-amplitude uplifts separating intraplate syn-orogenic depocentres and intraplate magmatic activity in Palaeocene time was primary controlled by subduction of the Caribbean Plate.Supplementary material:Appendix 1 presents detailed descriptions of analytical methods used in this manuscript. Appendixes 2 to 4 include raw data of sandstone petrography, heavy minerals and U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology, respectively. All this material is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/18597.

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A combination of new surface and subsurface structural data, new stratigraphic data on conventional provenance, facies and palaeocurrents, low-temperature thermochronology and detrital zircon U–Pb provenance data provides a comprehensive account of the timing of deformation in the intermountane Middle Magdalena basin of the Central Colombian Andes, and allows evaluation of the style of foreland basin deformation associated with tectonic inversion. This robust dataset enabled documentation of focused tectonic activity in two competing low-relief basement structures to the east and west of the present Middle Magdalena Valley during the Palaeogene, earlier than previously recognized. Cenozoic sediment accumulation of a sedimentary pile up to 7 km thick in the Middle Magdalena Basin created a large original taper angle in this part of the north Andes. At that time, when the detachment rocks were deeply buried, the original larger taper angle facilitated the forelandward advance of deformation instead of promoting its stagnation.Supplementary material:Raw data results from geochronometrial analyses are available at: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18627

The initial stages of tectonic inversion and the mechanisms of selective reactivation and abandonment of pre-existing normal faults during contractional orogenesis are explored in a partially buried Cenozoic thrust belt in the Andes of Colombia. A multidisciplinary approach that includes subsurface structural mapping, multimethod thermochronometry and detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology reveals the extent of a Palaeogene thrust belt buried underneath the Cenozoic strata of the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin. A less oblique orientation with respect to compressive stress and shorter traces in faults of the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin with respect to faults in the western part of the Eastern Cordillera, apparently acted as deformation inhibitors of the Magdalena faults in advanced Neogene stages of inversion. Protracted Cenozoic eastwards tilting of the Central Cordillera and the tectonic load from the uplifting Eastern Cordillera favoured the accumulation of a thick Cenozoic sedimentary sequence in an, at least episodically, closed basin. All the above-mentioned conditions helped to block deformation in the Magdalena Basin, favouring deformation to be taken up by structures in the western Eastern Cordillera. These relationships underscore the importance of buried structural records in elevated hinterland basins, in which the low-relief stratigraphic cover overlies a complex subsurface record, potentially including large magnitudes of deformation during early orogenesis.Supplementary material:Tables and figures on the laboratory methods for the thermochronometrical and geochronometrical analyses are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18601.