Descripción: Large landslides of different types not previously recorded are located in the left bank of the Río Curri Leuvú valley, north of the Tricao Malal village. There are situated among the Cerro Palao and the Palao pond and Riscos Negros site to the north. The largest landslides (Malal Cura and Arroyo Mogolillo landslides) correspond to the multiple rotational progressive type. They are developed on Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, covered by Cenozoic basalt flows. The debris and earth flows are developed in areas covered by the volcanic rocks of the Charilehue Formation (Middle Miocene) and continue north of study reaching the latitudes of the Grande and Medio streams and also the Colimamil stream valley southeast of Cerro Domuyo. The impact of these phenomena in the fluvial system was important and produced ephemeral and permanent blocking as seen in the La Turbia stream with coeval ponding. It is hypothesized that the landslide occurrence is related to excess or long-lasting periods of rain in postglacial times. It is also indicated the presence of rock glaciers in the Cerro Palao.

Descripción: New absolute ages derived from whole rock K/Ar dating of two vitric tuffs collected from the upper-middle part of the Toro Negro Formation in the outcrops of the Sierra de Los Colorados, Sierras Pampeanas Noroccidentales (La Rioja Province) are presented herein. The obtained values of 8,6 ± 0,3 Ma and 6,8 ± 0,2 Ma respectively, indicate an Upper Miocene age and challenge the previous Pliocene age proposed for this unit. The results pressented here have a high degree of confidence because they do not show evidences of reworking, mixing with terrigenous clastics nor diagenetic alteration. The tuff levels were mapped and georeferenced using GPS coordinates and their close location in the stratigraphic column provides an additional control for the obtained ages. © 2005 Asociación Geológica Argentina.

Descripción: In the southern border of Laguna de Pozuelos Basin, the Pan de Azúcar volcanic complex crops out. It consists of several dacitic volcanic dome centers of ~ 12 Ma. Previous interpretation of seismic lines and a detailed ground magnetic survey indicated the presence of buried intrusive bodies. The determination of the existence of buried bodies has two major implications: 1) these volcanic complexes are closely associated with ore deposits (as part of the Bolivian tin ore polymetallic belt); and 2) the existence of a large ancient caldera (~12 Ma) beneath the central and southern part of the Laguna de Pozuelos Basin, covered by the infilling sediments was previously suggested. The volcanic complexes would represent the final stages of such a calderic magmatic system. In order to confirm the existence of other buried intrusives and/or a buried caldera system, detailed ground magnetic and gravity surveys were carried out. The magnetic map is dominated by positive and negative anomalies in the southern sector of the basin, associated with the dacitic domes. The residual Bouguer anomaly presents a semicircular pattern, having only positive values. We applied the curvature technique to analyse the magnetic and gravity signals and used Euler deconvolution to estimate the depth to the sources. Our results would support the hypothesis of a large caldera buried beneath the Laguna de Pozuelos Basin. The identification of such a large Middle Miocene caldera would bring new insight into the magmatic evolution of the northern Puna.

Descripción: The Andes located in the central Neuquén (38°-39°S), which belong to the southern Central Andes (35°-39°S), have recorded a similar chronology of uplift than the neighbor northern Patagonian Andes (39°-46°S), Both areas have been formed trough successive phases of contraction in the Late Cretaceous, Middle Eocene and Late Miocene respectively. However, the Neuquén Andes have experienced two discrete phases of orogenic relaxation, during the Late Oligocene and Pliocene-Quaternary, which make then distinctive respect to the area located to the south. Field studies have shown new evidences of an episodic behavior of the fold and thrust belt in Neuquen, corresponding to compressive phases followed by stages of crustal collapse, at least since the Middle Cretaceous. The study of two main morphostructural units in the arc and retroarc area at 37°-39°S, the Alto de Copahue Pino Hachado, and its continuation to the north in the Chilean Andes (Laguna de la Laja), and the Loncopué trough respectively exemplify this particular behavior. A structural and a stratigraphie study in those areas have given a new evolutionary framework for the Neuquén Andes. © 2005 Asociación Geológica Argentina.

Descripción: The Cordillera de los Andes is the typical example of a subduction-related orogen. Its present topography is the result of post-Miocene uplift, however, Andean compressional deformation and uplift started in the Late Cretaceous, as increasingly recognized in different sectors of the mountain belt. We present evidences of a Late Cretaceous event of compressional deformation in the southern Central Andes (35oS), reflected in syn-orogenic foreland basin deposits assigned to the Neuquén Group in Argentina and the Brownish-Red Clastic Unit in Chile. Comparison of the facies of these units allows us to recognize a sector proximal to the Late Cretaceous orogenic front, a distal sector with sediment provenance from the forebulge and a western sector where the sediments where deposited within the Late Cretaceous mountain belt. On this basis, we assign the orogenic front to an inverted Jurassic normal fault, the Río del Cobre fault, and reconstruct the structure of the easternmost Late Cretaceous Andes at this latitude. The change in the location of the orogenic front north and south of 35oS allows us to recognize a long-lived change in behavior in Andean evolution in this sector, which correlates with a change in the shape and the deposits of Mesozoic Neuquén basin.

Descripción: The continental deposits found in southern and western Uruguay show important climatic changes along the Cenozoic. The sequence begins with Paleocene palustrine carbonates known as the Queguay Formation, associated with calcretes of phreatic origin which developed mainly on fluvial sediments of Mercedes Formation (Late Cretaceous), and indicates a semiarid climate, seasonally contrasted. The Asencio Formation (Early Eocene) is separated from Mercedes Formation by the Yapeyu paleosurface, limiting two sedimentary cycles. Fluvial deposits lies above this surface, on which Ultisols developed under a warm and humid climate; periods of intense dryness would provoked their induration and formation of ferricretes, which under subsequent increased precipitation were dismantled. Above, Fray Bentos Formation (Oligocene-Early Miocene) lies unconformably. It is composed by loessic sediments deposited in a semiarid climate, paleosols and diverse pedogenic calcretes developed on these sediments, among which a new type named tubular calcrete, are here described; in the latter the tubular units are related to a coarse prismatic structure derived from shrink-swell processes and the surface morphology of this calcrete refers to a gilgai microrelief, typical for Vertisols. The pedogenic calcretes point to a seasonal semiarid climate. The Raigón Formation (Late Pliocene- Middle Pleistocene) of fluvial origin was formed in a humid period, and shows a paleosol at the top developed in a seasonally contrasted climate. Lying unconformably, the Libertad Formation (Early to Middle Pleistocene) is composed by loesses deposited during glacial periods that were subsequently modified by pedogenesis during interglacial periods.

Descripción: In 1833 during his journey across the Buenos Aires Pampas, Charles Darwin made observations that reflected his thoughts on two major landscape units, Pampa interserrana and Pampa deprimida, later identified by other authors. Darwin grouped the Pampean sediments into a single unit, the Pampean Formation, based upon the lithological homogeneity and the large extension of the deposits; the unit was thought to be of estuarine-marine origin and attributed to the Recent Epoch considering the paleontological content (vertebrates and mollusks). At present, the Pampean sedimentary succession, which accumulated approximately during the last 11-12 Ma, is interpreted as a pedosedimentary sequence due to the ubiquity of pedogenetic features throughout the deposits. Four main subcycles of sedimentation are identified related to reactivations of the Pampean landscape. At a regional scale, the outcrop distribution of Pampean sediments of different ages suggests the dominance of more stable conditions since the late Miocene-Pliocene in a vast area of Pampa interserrana, documented by the formation of calcretes. However, sedimentation during the late Pliocene-Pleistocene was active within the domain of the Salado tectonic basin and Sierras de Tandil. The regional disparity shown by the Pampean stratigraphic record reveals the major morphostructural differences of its basement.

Descripción: The Payenia basaltic province is a typical retroarc association developed along the foothills of the Andes between 33°40 ́S and 38°00'S. It records two main events, an older, mostly Miocene one (26 to 8 Ma) and a younger Pliocene to Holocene one (younger than 5 Ma). It covers an N-S lowland belt named here the central depression. To the North of 36°20'S, the region was described as Los Huarpes depression, a partially deformed sedimentary basin characterized by a 1000 m-thick, undifferentiated Cenozoic sequence. To the south, Upper Cretaceous to Lower Paleogene layers, instead of the undifferentiated Cenozoic deposits, are covered by basalts. The volcanism additionally covers the western side of the San Rafael Block as well as the fold and thrust belt of the Andean foothills. The Payenia province consists of more than 800 monogenetic basaltic cones, and scarce polygenetic volcanos fed by shallow magmatic chambers. Among the latter, the following examples can be mentioned: Miocene Chachahuén volcano (7 to 5 Ma), composed of andesites, rhyodacites and basalts with high-K and amphibole; Pliocene El Nevado volcano, with calc-alkaline, basaltic trachyandesites, trachytes, dacites and rhyolites; and Upper Pleistocene to Holocene Payún Matrú volcano, composed of trachytes, trachyandesites and trachybasalts. The southernmost area of the central depression is covered by the Pleistocene, Auca Mahuida basaltic shield (1.7 to 0.88 Ma), consisting of trachybasalts, basaltic trachyandesites and trachyandesites. This shield is aligned with Tromen and Domuyo volcanos, defining an NW-SE volcanic belt, oblique to the Andes, whose southern tip corresponds to the Cortaderas lineament. Some of the monogenetic cones are of hydromagmatic origin, whereas a few others exhibit small mantle inclusions. The Payenia retroarc province develops to the south of the Pampean flat slab segment, where the heights of the Andes are smaller. This height difference might have been caused by a higher thermal gradient that softened the crust in the steeper subduction segment, while the colder lithosphere in the flat slab segment allowed greater crustal thickening and height. From the tectonic point of view the height difference has been attributed to a smaller orogenic contraction in the southern segment. Holocene volcanism appears exclusively at Payun Matru volcano. The associated thermal anomaly may explain the segmentation of the central depression, separating the Cenozoic Los Huarpes basin in the north and the section without coeval sedimentation in the south. The only surface evidence of this segmentation is the E-W, La Carbonilla fault, running both sides of the Payun Matru volcano. Other authors have explained this thermal anomaly as a process of crustal thinning and stretching associated with hot injection from the asthenosphere.

Descripción: In the cliffs of the Ladrillero cape, situated on the Atlantic coast of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the uppermost records of the Austral or Magallanes foreland basin infill crop out. This locality contains Lower Miocene deposits informally named "Cabo Ladrillero beds" and "Cabo San Pablo beds" being the "upper Cabo Ladrillero beds" analyzed in this paper. This locality is situated around ten kilometers to the north of the emerging orogenic front (Punta Gruesa locality) where four facies association have been defined from gravitationally-driven supra batial to prograding and shallowing upward deltaic wedges. Deformed and massive beds by liquefaction processes and resedimentation are connected with abundant clastic dykes and synsedimentary faults. The statistic study suggests they are associated tectonic activity related to a transtensive episode rather than tectonic quiescence sometimes suggested in previous works. We conclude that microfossils documented in the area and used as a tool to support a deep marine environment are situated in underlying stratigraphic intervals that form part of the Desdémona Formation and the "lower Cabo Ladrillero beds" cropping out to the south of the study area. Sedimentological evidence are not conclusive respect to the batimetry but absence of classical turbidites, hyperpycnal flows and abundant deformed and resedimented deposits are more compatible with deltaic deposits, with high detritus supply generating unstable slopes rather than deep marine depositional settings, suggesting a more complex depositional evolution than the foraminiferal-based framework dominant in the literature.

Descripción: The advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) was used to identify different deposits of hydrothermal alteration which indicates that several important lithological groups can be mapped in areas with good exposure by using spectral-matching techniques. Different methods are tested in order to identify and map zones with hydrothermal alteration minerals using the ASTER dataset. These areas are often referred to having large quantities of clay minerals which can be detected using multispectral imagery. Several authors have developed different procedures to map these hydrothermal minerals. Among the simplest ones, band combinations and band ratios have proven to be very useful tools for identifying targets. Lithology indexes point to reinforce the spectral response of this group of minerals working with band products and ratios. So far, these techniques do not need a full image correction. Other methods here employed require further processing of the ASTER scene, especially when spectral data are used. These techniques include spectral angle mapper (SAM) classification and minimum noise fraction (MNF) transforms to segregate noise and reduce computational requirements. Spectral data used in this paper were collected from field samples using SWIR (short wave infrared) reflectance spectroscopy and derived from the scene itself. These mapping methods have been tested in areas of known hydrothermal alteration occurrences, e.g. Los Pelambres, El Pachón and Altar, and in other sector of Santa Cruz region like Carnicerias and La Coipa; all of these at the south westernmost part of San Juan province. The result of this work is here presented as a series of images showing lithology indexes and an expected mineral assembly.

Descripción: The southern part of the Ñirihuau basin at the valley of the Cushamen River region, is deformed and uplifted forming a prominent Precordillera Patagónica fold and thrust belt, east of the Patagonian Andes. The Ñirihuau Basin infill is represented by Oligocene to Miocene sedimentary to volcaniclastic rocks gathered in eleven litho types belonging to four members. These foreland sequences are exposed by a combination of thin-skinned deformation whose shortening is transferred to the basement in the west beneath the Cordón del Maitén. The entire Ñirihuau section as well as the overlying Collón Cura Formation is characterized by the occurrence of progressive unconformities, fact that implies synorogenic sedimentation at the time of the Cordón del Maitén range uplift. This belt is formed by an east-verging basement wedge associated with a series of backthrusts. The reactivation of the deformation associated with growth strata, indicates that the basin has evolved in a wedge-top of a foreland system in different pulses of deformation.

Descripción: The Oligo-Miocene Somuncura province is the largest (∼55 000 km2) back-arc mafic volcanic field in Patagonia, and one of Earth's largest with no clear link to a hotspot or major extension. Major and trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data suggest involvement of a plume-like component in the mantle magma source mixed with hydrous, but not high field strength element (HFSE)-depleted components, from a disintegrating subducting plate. Magmatism is attributed to mantle upwelling related to disturbances during plate reorganization, possibly at a time when the South America plate was nearly stationary over the underlying mantle. Melting was enhanced by hydration of the mantle during Paleogene subduction. Crustal contamination was minimal in a refractory crust that had been extensively melted in the Jurassic. Eruption began with low-volume intraplate alkaline mafic flows with depleted Nd-Sr isotopic signatures. These were followed by voluminous ∼29-25 Ma tholeiitic mafic flows with flat light and steep heavy rare earth element (REE) patterns, intraplate-like La/Ta ratios, arc-like Ba/La ratios and enriched Sr-Nd isotopic signatures. Their source can be explained by mixing EM1-Tristan da Cunha-like and depleted mantle components with subduction-related components. Post-plateau ∼24-17 Ma alkaline flows with steep REE patterns, high incompatible element abundances, and depleted Sr-Nd isotopic signatures mark the ebbing of the mantle upwelling. Copyright © 2007 Oxford University Press.

Descripción: Continuity and evolution in time of the horizontal stress direction in the Neuquen Basin area, derived from the analysis of recent borehole data and orientation of volcanic dykes measured in outcrop in the Cara Cura and Reyes Ranges is presented. The bitumen dykes along the Neuquén Basin were formed during Paleocene - Eocene in a context where the maximum stress was horizontal and had a NE. Within the analyzed volcanic dykes two major groups have been recognized, group i (NE orientation) and group ii (NNE orientation) and a secondary group iii (NW orientation). The age of these dykes is still not well established, but they were related to a Late Oligocene - Miocene magmatic event. Both for the volcanic and bitumen dykes a type i group (ENE-NE orientation) has been recognized, evidencing the maximum stress direction at the time they were formed. Beyond the uncertainties in the volcanic and bitumen dykes age, it is interpreted that during great part of Tertiary, the orientation of the horizontal maximum stress was NE. However, the breakout data shows that the actual horizontal maximum stress is a little different with a ENE mean direction. This change in the direction of stress is consistent with the change in the subduction vector produced between the Eocene and today.