The Ecuadorian margin is characterized by a forearc basin composed of a Cretaceous basement covered by marine sediments of the Cretaceous to Quaternary age. The topography of this area displays two main morphological domains: the Coastal cordillera in the west and the Coastal plain in the east at the foothills of Andes cordillera. This work focuses on the genesis of the Coastal cordillera during the Neogene. Firstly, we carried out a geological fieldwork throughout the Coastal cordillera. From stratigraphy and structural studies, we produced a regional geological map of the Coastal cordillera at 1:500000 scale, which have allowed for the first time to realize a regional stratigraphy correlation and determine the structural pattern across the Coastal cordillera. In a second step, we carried out a geomorphologic study of the area. From DEM analysis and satellite and aerial imagery processing, we characterized the main landforms features of the study area. In particular, we focused on the geometry of the drainage network and on the river profiles crossing the Coastal cordillera. In addition, we measured the longitudinal profile of the alluvial terrace treads along the Jama River and analyzed the morphology of alluvial fans that are deposited on the Coastal Plain at the foothills of the Andes cordillera. From the different results obtained, we proposed an evolution scheme of the uplift of the coastal cordillera. The measurements of incisions along river valleys suggest that the uplift of the Costal cordillera is heterogeneous: the cordillera is segmented into several blocks with own uplift rates. The incisions of the northern blocks are the highest. The analysis of the longitudinal profiles along the alluvial terrace treads of the Jama River indicates a recent activity along the faults of the system Jama. The uplift rates estimated from this analysis ranges from 0.9 to 1.2 mm/yr for the central segment of the Coastal cordillera. The analysis of Santo Domingo alluvial fan situated at the foothills of the Andes cordillera reveals a large interaction between the sedimentary filling of the Coastal plain and the contemporaneous uplift of the Andes and the Coastal cordilleras. This interaction results into the reorganization of two major drainage basins: Guayas in the south and Esmeraldas in the north. At long timescales, the geology and stratigraphy of the Neogene formations shows that domains in the southern Coastal cordillera were subject to intense erosion (rising?) with respect to the northern domains. The analysis of the several unconformities evidences that the Coastal cordillera was raised in a heterogeneous way since the Plio-Pleistocene as a large and elongated antiform segmented and controlled by regional faults which have a trend between NE and NNE, which is close to that of the movement to the North Andean block.
