| Cocinetas Basin | |
|---|---|
| Cuenca Cocinetas | |
  Location of the basin in Colombia | |
| Coordinates | 11°58′00″N 71°22′43″W / 11.96667°N 71.37861°W |
| Etymology | Cocinetas Bay |
| Region | Caribbean Guajira-Barranquilla xeric scrub ecoregion |
| Country | Colombia |
| State(s) | La Guajira |
| Cities | Uribia |
| Characteristics | |
| On/Offshore | Onshore |
| Boundaries | Serranía de Jarara, Serranía de Macuira, Gulf of Venezuela, Serranía Cocinas |
| Part of | Circum-Caribbean basins |
| Area | ~1,000 km2 (390 sq mi) |
| Hydrology | |
| Sea(s) | Tortugas or Tucacas Bay, Cocinetas Bay Gulf of Venezuela Caribbean Sea |
| Geology | |
| Basin type | Pull-apart basin |
| Plate | North Andes |
| Orogeny | Andean |
| Age | Mid Eocene-Holocene |
| Stratigraphy | Stratigraphy |
| Faults | Cuisa & Macuira (bounding) |
| Field(s) | none |
The Cocinetas Basin (Spanish: Cuenca Cocinetas) is a small sedimentary basin of approximately 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi) in northeasternmost Colombia. The onshore pull-apart basin is located in the department of La Guajira at the border with Zulia, Venezuela. The basin is bound by three sets of hills; the Serranía de Jarara, Serranía Macuira and Serranía Cocinas, with the eastern boundary formed by the Gulf of Venezuela, part of the Caribbean Sea.
The basin was formed during the Paleogene as a result of the eastward movement of the Caribbean Plate along the northern edge of the South American Plate, leading to the deposition of a Middle Eocene to Middle Pleistocene sedimentary sequence of conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones, limestones and mudstones.
In the Cocinetas Basin, several fossiliferous stratigraphic units have been registered, providing an abundance of marine and continental vertebrate and invertebrate fossil fauna assemblages. The Uitpa, Jimol, Castilletes and Ware Formations contain numerous fossils of Neogene and Quaternary ages, both before and after the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI), presenting new insights in the understanding of the variation in South American fauna related to the uplift of the Panama Block and the connection of North America and South America.