Pacific subduction coeval with the Karoo mantle plume : the early Jurassic subcordilleran belt of northwestern Patagonia

The Early Mesozoic magmatism of southwestern Gondwana is reviewed in the light of new U-Pb SHRIMP zircon ages (181 ± 2 Ma, 181 ± 3 Ma, 185 ± 2 Ma, and 182 ± 2 Ma) that establish an Early Jurassic age for the granites of the Subcordilleran plutonic belt in northwestern Argentine Patagonia. New geochemical and isotopic data confirm that this belt represents an early subduction-related magmatic arc along the proto-Pacific margin of Gondwana. Thus, subduction was synchronous with the initial phase of Chon Aike rhyolite volcanism ascribed to the thermal effects of the Karoo mantle plume and heralding rifting of this part of the supercontinent. Overall, there is clear evidence that successive episodes of calc-alkaline arc magmatism from Late Triassic times until establishment of the Andean Patagonian batholith in the Late Jurassic involved westerly migration and clockwise rotation of the arc. This indicates a changing geodynamic regime during Gondwana break-up and suggests differential rollback of the subducted slab, with accretion of new crustal material and/or asymmetrical ‘scissor-like’ opening of back-arc basins. This almost certainly entailed dextral displacement of continental domains in Patagonia

Síntesis geocronológica de la evolución paleozoica inferior del borde sur occidental de Gondwana en las Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina

Las Sierras Pampeanas Argentinas constituyen un buen registro de la evolución Pre-Devónica del margen sur occidental del Gondwana.Los trabajos multidisciplinarios recientes y especialmente la información geocronológica, recolectada a lo largo de una transecta E-W de aproximadamente unos 500 km, permiten precisar la edad y los rasgos geológicos de los dos principales ciclos tectono-magmáticos involucrados en la evolución paleozoica inferior de esta parte del basamento argentino.El Ciclo Orogénico Pampeano comienza con una etapa de sedimentación en un margen pasivo (560-530 Ma), que evoluciona hacia una situación de margen activo con generación de un arco magmático tipo Andino, a los 533 - 528 Ma. El ciclo finaliza hacia los 523 Ma. en una colisión de tipo ortogonal, con un importante engrosamiento cortical, anatexis regional y generación de granitos "S". El "Ciclo Orogénico Famatiniano" se inicia a los 499-496 Ma y se caracteriza por la implantación de un arco magmático intemo de tipo trondhjemitico, seguido hacia el oeste por un importante arco magmático externo, contemporáneo con el anterior y formado por granodioritas de tipo "I" y grandes batolitos graníticos de tipo "S". Durante el Famatiniano tiene también lugar la formación de una cuenca de retroarco ensiálica con magmatismo básico. El final de este ciclo (450-420 Ma) está marcado por el desarrollo de importantes fajas de milonitización que marcan la colisión oblicua del Terreno Precordillera respecto al margen de Gondwana

Edad y origen de la fluorita del yacimiento de la Nueva (Cabalango, Córdoba, Argentina) en base a geoquímica de isótopos radiogénicos (Nd y Sr)

The fluorite mineralization from the La Nueva Mine, has a Sm-Nd age of 130 ± 19 Ma, and thus must be related to the Lower Cretaceous late-Gondwanic extensional and magmatic event that affected the Sierras Pampeanas Basement of Argentina. Hydrothermal fluids involved in the formation of fluorite were probably derived by mixing of two fluids, an ascending high 87Sr/86Sr one, probably equilibrated with basement metamorphics, as suggested by the very negative ENd(130) values, and a second, "descending", with a low 87Sr/86Sr value

K-bentonites in the Argentine Precordillera contemporaneous with rhyolite volcanism in the Famatinian Arc

New U–Pb radiometric dates for K-bentonite horizons within the Lower Cambrian to Middle Ordovician platform carbonates from the Precordillera terrane of NWArgentina provide further constraints on models for the allochthonous or parautochthonous accretion of this terrane. Two K-bentonite layers from the Talacasto section yield indistinguishable sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb zircon dates of 469.5 3.2 Ma and 470.1 3.3 Ma respectively. These are within uncertainty of the U–Pb SHRIMP zircon date of 468.3 3.4 Ma for a porphyritic rhyolite from the Famatinian magmatic arc, Sierra de las Planchadas, near Rio Chaschuil. Geochemical and isotope data also demonstrate the similarity of the Kbentonite and Chaschuil rhyolite parent magmas. Thus, it is highly probable that the Famatinian arc volcanoes provided the ash for the K-bentonite horizons, suggesting proximity to the Precordillera terrane during the deposition of the Lower Cambrian to Middle Ordovician platform carbonates. This implication supports a mid-Ordovician collision model, but could also be compatible with a parautochthonous model for docking of the Precordillera terrane, by movement along the Pacific margin of Gondwana, rather than across the Iapetus Ocean

Involvement of the Argentine Precordillera terrane in the Famatinian mobile belt: U-Pb SHRIMP and metamorphic evidence from the Sierra de Pie de Palo

New data suggest that the eastern margin of the Argentine Precordillera terrane comprises Grenvillian basement and a sedimentary cover derived from it that were together affected by Middle Ordovician deformation and metamorphism during accretion to the Gondwana margin. The basement first underwent low pressure/temperature (P/T) type metamorphism, reaching high-grade migmatitic conditions in places (686 6 40 MPa, 790 6 17 8C), comparable to the Grenvillian M2 metamorphism of the supposed Laurentian counterpart of the terrane. The second metamorphism, recognized in the cover sequence, is of Famatinian age and took place under higher P/T conditions, following a clockwise P-T path (baric peak: 1300 6 100 Mpa, 600 6 50 8C). Low-U zircon overgrew detrital Grenvillian cores as pressure fell from its peak, and yields U-Pb SHRIMP ages of ca. 460 Ma. This is interpreted as the age of ductile thrusting coincident with early uplift; initial accretion to Gondwana must have occurred before this. The absence of late Neoproterozoic detrital zircons is consistent with a Laurentian origin of the Argentine Precordillera terrane

Sr, C and O isotope composition of marbles from the Sierra de Ancasti, Eastern Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina: age and constraints for the Neoproterozoic–Lower Paleozoic evolution of the proto-Gondwana margin

The Sierra Brava Complex on the eastern flank of the Sierra de Ancasti consists of marbles, metabasites, calc-silicate rocks, psammo-pelitic schists and gneisses. In the central part of this sierra a thick succession of banded schists (Ancasti Formation) crops out. Regional metamorphism of these rocks is attributed to the Famatinian orogeny (Ordovician), metamorphic grade increasing westwards and southwards and culminating in a migmatite complex on the western side of the Sierra. The meta-carbonate rocks are subdivided into a northeastern group (low-grade calcite marbles), and a southeastern group (high-grade calcite and calcite-dolomite marbles). Twenty-three marble samples were analysed for Sr isotope composition and Rb, Mn, Mg and Ca contents, and six for C and O isotope composition. An Ediacaran depositional age of 570 –590Ma is inferred by reference to the trend of 87Sr/86Sr in Neoproterozoic seawater. Thus the metacarbonates are probably slightly older than the Ancasti Formation (equivalent to the Puncoviscana Formation of northern Argentina), which has a maximum sedimentation age of ca. 570Ma. Ediacaran depositional ages have also been reported for metacarbonates elsewhere in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. We propose that the Sierra de Ancasti carbonates on one hand, and those in the Western Sierras Pampeanas (Difunta Correa Sequence) and -tentativelythe Corumbá Group of Brazil on the other, represent platforms on opposite margins of the extinct Clymene Ocean, whereas Neoproterozoic carbonate successions such as the Loma Negra Formation (Tandilia, southern Argentina) and the Arroyo del Soldado Group (Uruguay) were deposited on the eastern side (present coordinates) of the Río de la Plata craton, which at the time occupied a position farther to the north

An Ediacarian carbonate platform in the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina: Sr isotopic relations in marbles of the Sierra de Ancasti

Depto. de Mineralogía y PetrologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Neoproterozoic A-type magmatism in the Western Sierras Pampeanas (Argentina): evidence for Rodinia break-up along a proto-Iapetus rift?

A-type orthogneisses of mid Neoproterozoic age (774 ± 6 Ma, U-Pb SHRIMP zircon age), are reported for the first time from the Grenvillian basement of the Western Sierras Pampeanas in Argentina. These anorogenic meta-igneous rocks represent the latest event of Rodinia break-up so far recognized in Grenvillian basement exposures across Andean South America. Moreover, they compare well with A-type granitoids and volcanic rocks along the Appalachian margin of Laurentia (Blue Ridge), thus adding to former evidence that the Western Sierras Pampeanas Grenvillian basement was left on the conjugate rifted margin of eastern Laurentia during Rodinia break-up and the consequent opening of the Iapetus ocean