“…During Eocene times, the northward movement of the Caribbean Plate was halted due to the collision against the North American Plate, resulting in an eastward movement of the Caribbean Plate relative to South America, which induced a more orthogonal subduction zone beneath South America (Müller et al, ; Pindell & Kennan, ). This subduction formed a continuous N‐S uplifted region, which includes the Central Cordillera, the Santa Marta Massif, the Guajira Peninsula, and Leeward Antilles, and is also represented by intrusive magmatism along the margin and intra‐plate volcanism (Bayona et al, ; Cardona et al, ; Cardona et al, , ; Zapata et al, ; Figure a). Onshore regions were characterized by subaerial depocenters with fluvial environments, as part of the proto‐Maracaibo Basin (Ayala et al, ; Escalona & Mann, ; Gomez et al, a; Gomez et al, b; Villamil, ).…”