The geology of Ecuador includes ancient Precambrian basement rock and a complex tectonic assembly of new sections of crust from formerly separate landmasses, often uplifted as the Andes or transformed into basins.
These high-grade, polymetamorphic rocks often show signs of overprinting and green hornblende with a feather-like texture is found in the amphibolite.
In north-central Ecuador, the Peltetec-Portovelo fault marks the suture between the pre-existing South American craton and the Amotape-Chaucha terrane, which partially subducted beneath a preexisting Mesozoic continental arc system.
[2] The breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana is recorded in the Triassic in Ecuador with S-type granite plutons, followed by the intrusion of calc-alkaline batholiths in the Jurassic.
[6] Most mineable deposits in Ecuador are either epithermal gold or porphyry copper hosted in Paleogene rocks, formed from the Eocene to the Miocene.