Sabana Formation

Sabana Formation
Stratigraphic range: Mid to Late Pleistocene (Ensenadan-Lujanian) ~1.2–0.01 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Type	Geological formation
Underlies	Holocene unconsolidated sediments
Overlies	Subachoque Fm., Tilatá Fm.
Area	~4,500 km2 (1,700 sq mi)
Thickness	up to 320 m (1,050 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Shale
Other	Lignite, sandstone, volcanic ash
Location
Coordinates	4°43′02.3″N 74°13′01.2″W / 4.717306°N 74.217000°W / 4.717306; -74.217000
Region	Bogotá savanna, Altiplano Cundiboyacense Eastern Ranges, Andes
Country	Colombia
Extent	~90 km × 40 km (56 mi × 25 mi)
Type section
Named for	Bogotá savanna
Named by	Helmens & Hammen
Location	Funza II well
Year defined	1995
Coordinates	4°43′02.3″N 74°13′01.2″W / 4.717306°N 74.217000°W / 4.717306; -74.217000
Region	Cundinamarca
Country	Colombia
Thickness at type section	317 m (1,040 ft)
Paleogeography of the Pleistocene by Ron Blakey

The Sabana Formation (Spanish: Formación Sabana, Q1_sa, QTs) is a geological formation of the Bogotá savanna, Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The formation consists mainly of shales with at the edges of the Bogotá savanna lignites and sandstones. The Sabana Formation dates to the Quaternary period; Middle to Late Pleistocene epoch, and has a maximum thickness of 320 metres (1,050 ft), varying greatly across the savanna. It is the uppermost formation of the lacustrine and fluvio-glacial sediments of paleolake Humboldt, that existed at the edge of the Eastern Hills until the latest Pleistocene.

The uppermost sediments of the Sabana Formation were deposited during the Last Glacial Maximum, a time when the first humans populated the Bogotá savanna. These hunter-gatherers used the bones of the still extant Pleistocene megafauna as Notiomastodon platensis, Cuvieronius hyodon and Equus neogeus, of which fossils have been found in the Sabana Formation.

Knowledge about the formation has been provided by geologists Alberto Guerrero, Thomas van der Hammen and others.