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 NW Argentina 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 K-bentonite 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.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoCentro de Investigaciones Geológica

Sr, C and O isotope composition of marbles from the Sierra de 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 Rio de la Plata craton, which at the time occupied a position farther to the north.Peer reviewe

Granate con alto contenido de tierras raras pesadas (HREE) y elevada relación Sm/Nd, en pegmatitas de la Sierra de Valle Fértil (Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina).

2 p.El trabajo se realizó en el marco de lso proyectos PB97-1246 (MEC) y BTE2001-1486 (MCYT) y PICT98-4189 (Argentina

Cordieritite and Leucogranite Formation during Emplacement of Highly Peraluminous Magma: the El Pilón Granite Complex (Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina)

Cordieritites and highly peraluminous granites within the El Pilon granite complex, Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina, were emplaced during a medium-P, high-T metamorphic event during the initial decompression of a Cambrian orogen along the southwestern margin of Gondwana. Very fresh orbicular and massive cordieritite bodies with up to 90% cordieritite are genetically associated with a cordierite monzogranite pluton and a larger body of porphyritic granodiorite. The petrogenesis of this association has been studied using petrographical, mineralogical, thermobarometric, geochemical, geochronological and isotope methods. The granitic magmas were formed by anatexis of mid-crustal metamorphic rocks formed earlier in the Pampean orogeny. The cordieritites appear at the top of feeder conduits that connected the source region located at ∼6 kbar with the pluton emplacement level at 3·7 ± 0·3 kbar. A fall in the liquidus temperature of the melt during emplacement was produced by a marked increase in fluid activity owing to rapid decompression and assimilation of surrounding hydrous metapelitic schists, followed by isobaric crystallization. High-Mg cordierite crystallized early on biotite–sillimanite restitic mineral assemblages of the assimilated schists or at the wall of the feeder conduits. Strong convection in the small magma chamber caused flow segregation of cumulate cordierite and restite, developing leucogranites and highly evolved pegmatoids that are in isotopic equilibrium. Rapid ascent of highly peraluminous magmas might explain why emplacement of these granites was simultaneous with the metamorphic peak registered in neighbouring high-grade migmatite and granulite terranes.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoCentro de Investigaciones Geológica

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.Centro de Investigaciones Geológica

The continental assembly of SW Gondwana (Ediacaran to Cambrian): a synthesis

SW Gondwana resulted from complex interplay between continental amalgamation and dispersal between ~ 650 and 490 Ma. The main cratons involved were Laurentia, Amazonia– MARA (Proterozoic Maz–Arequipa–Rio Apa, Casquet et al., 2012), Kalahari, Rio de la Plata (RPC), Congo and East Antarctica (Mawson block). Several collisional orogenic belts resulted, notably the East Africa–Antarctica, Brasiliano–Panafrican, Pampean–Saldania, and Ross– Delamerian orogens. East-Antarctica broke away from the western margin of Laurentia in Rodinia. After a long drift and counter-clockwise rotation (Dalziel, 2013) it collided with Congo and Kalahari to produce the southern part of the left-lateral transpressional East Africa–Antarctica orogen between 580 and 550 Ma, completing the amalgamation of East Gondwana. The Trans-Antarctic margin became an active one in the Ediacaran and subduction of the Pacific Ocean lithosphere occurred throughout the Paleozoic, forming a tract of the Terra Australis orogen. NW–SE directed compression in Late Cryogenian and Early Ediacaran times promoted closure of the Adamastor Ocean, resulting in the left-lateral transpressional Brasiliano–Pan African orogeny between 650 and 570 Ma. The Pampean orogenic belt to the west of the RPC resulted from right-lateral collision between Laurentia and its eastern extension MARA on the one hand and Kalahari–RPC on the other. Ocean opening started at ~ 630 Ma and subduction and further collision took place between 540 and 520 Ma, coeval with the northward drift of Laurentia (~ 540 Ma) away from MARA and the consequent formation of the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana. The margins of the intervening Puncoviscana ocean were covered by Laurentia-derived siliciclastic sediments and carbonates on the MARA side between 630 and ~ 540 Ma (Rapela et al, 2014; this symposium), and by the marine siliciclastic Puncoviscana Formation on the other. The latter formation, deposited between a 570 and ~530 Ma, received input from large alluvial fans descending from juvenile Mesoproterozoic and Neproterozoic sources (new Hf isotope evidence) largely located in the southern East Africa–Antarctica orogen. The Pampean orogen extended into the Saldania–Gariep orogen of southern South Africa (545–520 Ma) and was apparently discordant to the earlier Brasiliano–Pan African orogen. In late-Early to late Cambrian times the Pampean–Saldania realm evolved into a passive margin with siliciclastic platform sedimentation. The Pampean-Saldania realm was separated from the active Trans-Antarctic margin of East Antarctica by an inferred transform fault in Ediacaran to Cambrian times. Regional NW–SW shortening in the Ediacaran became N–S directed in the Cambrian, suggesting a major plate reorganization at this time.Peer reviewe

Grenvillian massif-type anorthosites in the Sierras Pampeanas

We report the discovery of massif-type anorthosites in the Andean basement of the Western Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina. U–Pb zircon dating (by sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe) of a cogenetic gabbronorite dyke yields ages of 1070 ± 41 Ma for igneous emplacement and 431 ± 40 Ma for metamorphism. These anorthosites are petrologically and geochemically comparable with those of the Grenville province of Laurentia. Palaeogeographical reconstructions of Rodinia at 1.0–1.1 Ga suggest that the Sierras Pampeanas anorthosites were part of a large anorthosite province in the late Mesoproterozoic.Centro de Investigaciones Geológica

The Mesoproterozoic Maz terrane in the Western Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina, equivalent to the Arequipa-Antofalla block of southern Peru? : Implications for West Gondwana margin evolution

The rocks of Sierra de Maz and Sierra del Espinal (Western Sierras Pampeanas) represent pre-Famatinian (Ordovician) basement. Isotope compositions (Nd and Pb) of metasedimentary rocks and SHRIMP U–Pb dating of detrital zircons, combined with other geological evidence, show that three parallel N–S domains can be recognized. The central Maz Domain contains pre-Grenvillian metasedimentary rocks deposited between 1.2 and 1.6 Ga, that underwent Grenvillian granulite facies metamorphism and were intruded by mafic igneous rocks and massif-type anorthosites. Metasedimentary rocks have high Nd TDM ages (1.7–2.7 Ga) and very radiogenic Pb (μ = 9.8–10.2), suggesting provenance from reworked early Proterozoic or Archean continental crust. The domains to the east and west of the Maz Domain consist of three metasedimentary sequences with Nd TDM ages between 1.2 and 1.6 Ga and variably radiogenic Pb (μ = 9.6–10.0). U–Pb SHRIMP dating of detrital zircons, Nd TDM model ages and comparison with other data suggest that these sequences are post-Grenvillian, i.e., Neoproterozoic and/or early Paleozoic. The Maz Domain is interpreted as a suspect terrane similar to the northern Arequipa–Antofalla craton that forms the basement of the Central Andes; both underwent Grenville-age orogeny and were probably once continuous along the western margin of Amazonia (West Gondwana).Centro de Investigaciones Geológica

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 NW Argentina 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 K-bentonite 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.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoCentro de Investigaciones Geológica

Phase field approach to optimal packing problems and related Cheeger clusters

In a fixed domain of $\Bbb{R}^N$ we study the asymptotic behaviour of optimal clusters associated to $\alpha$-Cheeger constants and natural energies like the sum or maximum: we prove that, as the parameter $\alpha$ converges to the "critical" value $\Big (\frac{N-1}{N}\Big ) _+$, optimal Cheeger clusters converge to solutions of different packing problems for balls, depending on the energy under consideration. As well, we propose an efficient phase field approach based on a multiphase Gamma convergence result of Modica-Mortola type, in order to compute $\alpha$-Cheeger constants, optimal clusters and, as a consequence of the asymptotic result, optimal packings. Numerical experiments are carried over in two and three space dimensions