Revised timing of cenozoic atlantic incursions and changing hinterland sediment sources during southern patagonian orogenesis

New detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data from the Cenozoic Magallanes-Austral Basin in Argentina and Chile ~51° S establish a revised chronostratigraphy of Paleocene-Miocene foreland synorogenic strata and document the rise and subsequent isolation of hinterland sources in the Patagonian Andes from the continental margin. The upsection loss of zircons derived from the hinterland Paleozoic and Late Jurassic sources between ca. 60 and 44Ma documents a major shift in sediment routing due to Paleogene orogenesis in the greater Patagonian-Fuegian Andes. Changes in the proportion of grains from hinterland thrust sheets, comprised of Jurassic volcanics and Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks, provide a trackable signal of long-term shifts in orogenic drainage divide and topographic isolation due to widening of the retroarc fold-thrust belt. The youngest detrital zircon U-Pb ages confirm timing of Maastrichtian-Eocene strata but require substantial age revisions for part of the overlying Cenozoic basinfill during the late Eocene and Oligocene. The upper Río Turbio Formation, previously mapped as middle to late Eocene in the published literature, records a newly recognized latest Eocene-Oligocene (37-27Ma) marine incursion along the basin margin. We suggest that these deposits could be genetically linked to the distally placed units along the Atlantic coast, including the El Huemul Formation and the younger San Julián Formation, via an eastward deepening within the foreland basin system that culminated in a basin-wide Oligocene marine incursion in the Southern Andes. The overlying Río Guillermo Formation records onset of tectonically generated coarse-grained detritus ca. 24.3Ma and a transition to the first fully nonmarine conditions on the proximal Patagonian platform since Late Cretaceous time, perhaps signaling a Cordilleran-scale upper plate response to increased plate convergence and tectonic plate reorganization.Fil: Fosdick, Julie C.. University of Connecticut; Estados UnidosFil: VanderLeest, R. A.. University of Connecticut; Estados UnidosFil: Bostelmann, J. E.. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Leonard, J. S.. Arizona State University; Estados UnidosFil: Ugalde, R.. Universidad Mayor; ChileFil: Oyarzún, J. L.. Parque Geo-paleontológico la Cumbre-baguales; ChileFil: Griffin, Miguel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleozoología Invertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentin

The Northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet During The Early Pleistocene Was Similar To Today

The multi-million year history of the Greenland Ice Sheet remains poorly known. Ice-proximal glacial marine diamict provides a direct but discontinuous record of ice sheet behavior; it is underutilized as a climate archive. Here, we present a novel multiproxy analysis of an Early Pleistocene marine diamict from northwestern Greenland. Low cosmogenic nuclide concentrations indicate minimal near-surface exposure, similar to modern terrestrial sediment. Detrital apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) ages all predate glaciation by \u3e150 million years, suggesting the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet had, by 1.9 Ma, not yet incised fjords of sufficient depth to excavate grains with young AHe ages. The diamict contains terrestrial plant leaf wax, likely from land surfaces surrounding the ice sheet. These data indicate that a persistent, dynamic ice sheet existed in northwestern Greenland by 1.9 Ma and that diamict is a useful archive of ice sheet history and process

The closure of the Rocas Verdes Basin and early tectono-metamorphic evolution of the Magallanes Fold-and-Thrust Belt, southern Patagonian Andes (52–54°S)

The hinterland Western Domain of the Magallanes Fold-and-Thrust Belt (MFTB) between 52°-54°S is part of a poorly studied region of the southernmost Andean Cordillera. This domain consists of NNW-SSE trending tectonic slices of pre-Jurassic basement units and Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous ophiolitic complexes and volcano-sedimentary successions of the Rocas Verdes Basin (RVB). New detrital zircon UPb ages of metatuffs and metapsammopelites constrain episodes of Late Jurassic rift-related volcanism (ca. 160 Ma) followed by Early Cretaceous sedimentation (ca. 125 Ma) during the opening of the RVB. Shear bands developed in the RVB units further record the initial phases of the Andean Orogeny. The 30-km wide thrust stack located on top of the Eastern Tobífera Thrust consists of mylonitic metatuffs, metapelites and metabasalts with a NE-verging brittle-ductile S1* foliation. Phengite-bearing metatuffs commonly record pressure-temperature (P-T) conditions between ~3–6 kbar and ~ 210–460 °C, consistent with underthrusting of the RVB beneath the parautochthonous magmatic arc in the west. Peak metamorphic conditions of ~6 kbar and 460 °C are derived from a metapsammopelitic schist with textures of contact metamorphism overprinting early mylonitic structures (at least S1*). A back-arc quartz-diorite, intruded at ca. 83 Na, is in contact with the metapsammopelites and constrain the minimum age of deformation at deep crustal depths. Campanian-Maastrichtian (ca. 70–73 Ma) 40Ar/39Ar phengite dates from a mylonitic metapelite indicate the timing of thrusting and backthrusting during the initial uplift of the underthrusted crustal stack. These findings reveal a ~ 400 km along-strike connection of mylonite belts in a continent-verging thrust structure that became active at the onset of the Andean orogeny during the closure of the Rocas Verdes back-arc marginal basin

Editorial: Sedimentary System Response to External Forcings: A Process-Based Perspective

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Supplemental data for: Navigating the complexity of detrital rutile provenance: Methodological insights from the Neotethys Orogen in Anatolia

Workflows for detrital rutile U-Pb geochronology and trace element geochemistry applied to sedimentary basin analysi

Active deformation in the northern Sierra de Valle Fertil, Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina

The Western Sierras Pampeanas region in the San Juan Province is characterized by thick-skinned deformation with approximately NeS trending ranges of average heights of 2500 m and a high frequency occurrence of seismic activity. Its location to the east of the mainly thin-skinned tectonics of the Argentine Precordillera fold-and-thrust belt suggests that at 30S, deformation is concentrated in a narrow zone involving these two morphostructural units. In this paper, we present new apatite (UeTh)/He results (AHe) across the northern part of the Sierra de Valle Fertil (around 30S) and analyze them in aframework of thermochronologic available datasets. We found Pliocene AHe results for Carboniferous and Triassic strata in the northern Sierra de Valle Fertil consistent with the hypothesis of recent cooling and inferred erosional denudation concentrated along the northern end of this mountain range. Ouranalysis shows that this northern region may have evolved under different conditions than the central part of the Sierra de Valle Fertil. Previous studies have observed AHe ages consistent with Permian through Cretaceous cooling, indicating the middle part of the Sierra de Valle Fertil remained near surfacebefore the Pampean slab subduction flattening process. Those studies also obtained ~5 My cooling ages in the southern part of the Sierra de Valle Fertil, which are similar to our results in the northern end of the range. Taken together, these results suggest a pattern of young deformation in the northern and southern low elevation ends of the Sierra de Valle Fertil consistent with regions of high seismic activity, and Quaternary active faulting along the western-bounding thrust fault of the Sierra de Valle Fertil.Fil: Ortiz, Gustavo Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Alvarado, Patricia Monica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Fosdick, Julie C.. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Perucca, Laura Patricia A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Saez, Mauro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Venerdini, Agostina Lia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin

Tectonic Subsidence Modeling of Diachronous Transition From Backarc to Retroarc Basin Development and Uplift During Cordilleran Orogenesis, Patagonian-Fuegian Andes

Backstripped tectonic basin subsidence histories are critical for interpreting phases of lithospheric deformation and paleoenvironmental change from the stratigraphic record. This study presents new subsidence modeling of the Rocas Verdes Backarc Basin (RVB) and Magallanes-Austral retroarc foreland basin (MAB) of southernmost South America to evaluate along-strike changes in tectonic subsidence related to the Late Jurassic through Miocene history of the Southern Andes. We compiled composite stratigraphic sections for seven basin localities that span 47°–54°S from published sedimentological records of paleoenvironment, paleobathymetry, and geochronology. Modeling results resolve regional trends in basin tectonic subsidence, uplift, and sedimentation rate that influenced the depositional environment during five broad phases of RVB-MAB development: (a) Late Jurassic tectonic subsidence and basin deepening associated with rift-related backarc extension that postdated regional diachronous rift-related magmatism. (b) Southward younging of Early to Late Cretaceous pronounced acceleration in tectonic subsidence interpreted as the initiation of flexural loading and development of the MAB foreland basin system. (c) Late Cretaceous (ca. 85–70 Ma) tectonic uplift within the central foredeep ∼49° to 52°S, coeval with a shift from slope to shelf deposition at these latitudes. (d) A protracted period of low-magnitude basin uplift and relative tectonic quiescence during the Paleogene, with the exception of southernmost localities; and (e) Synchronous latest Oligocene-early Miocene tectonic subsidence linked to basin deepening and transgression across the northern and central basin sectors. Backstripped tectonic subsidence analysis corroborates existing interpretations for orogenic development in the RVB-MAB and sheds new light on complex polyphase basin histories where extension precedes convergence.Fil: VanderLeest, Rebecca A.. University of Connecticut; Estados UnidosFil: Fosdick, Julie C.. University of Connecticut; Estados UnidosFil: Malkowski, Matthew A.. University of Texas at Austin; Estados UnidosFil: Romans, Brian W.. Virginia Tech University; Estados UnidosFil: Ghiglione, Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Schwartz, Theresa M.. United States Geological Survey; Estados UnidosFil: Sickmann, Zachary T.. University of Texas; Estados Unido

Grand Challenges (and Great Opportunities) in Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Diagenesis Research

Technological advances make these exciting times for geoscientists studying Earth surface processes, their depositional products, and interactions with the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere; from monitoring contemporary sediment transport processes to interpretation of sedimentary archives that record ancient environmental changes. We set out three research challenges: 1) Sedimentology and society; 2) Life and sediment interactions; 3) Sedimentary system responses to external forcings. Finally, we conclude our summaries of these cutting-edge research topics, with a rallying call for the sedimentology, stratigraphy, and diagenesis research communities to become integral to pertinent interdisciplinary research areas. The open access journal Frontiers in Earth Science: Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Diagenesis (SSD) is a new vehicle to enable our discipline to continue to grow, and reinvigorate these research areas as core geoscience disciplines. We are ready to receive manuscripts from across the Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Diagenesis research community, within and beyond the themes we summarize below. We intend that these themes will form the basis for special sessions at conferences, and to accrue open access thematic sets in the journal, which will reflect the central position of SSD research in the geosciences, and across interdisciplinary research programmes