Descripción: The region is situated in the Neuquén Cordillera at 38° 30'S latitud close to the international border. Geomorphic and structural features are presented which indicated a glacial morphogenesis for the depression that contains the Moquehue- Aluminé lakes. Previous works have identified a large volcanic complex related to Plio-Quaternary volcanic activity located at the east of the present volcanic arc. In this sector various caldera depressions and associated domic bodies have been identified. From the nine proposed calderas only the Pino Hachado caldera has been studied in detail. The Meseta del Arco and Nacimientos del Aluminé are disregarded as calderas. The erosional genesis of the steep scarps previously interpreted as caldera margins is also identified with glacial erosion. Facies and types of the local Pleistocene glaciation, its extension, their flow direction and its quite probable diffluence (Paso del Arco) through coeval glaciers situated north of the international border are also analyzed. Local characteristics of volcanic and eolian morphogenic and the mass-wasting process are described. Brief comments about pre-glacial drainage and the previous proposal of Bío Bío-Aluminé trough on the region are added. Transversal topographic-geological profiles discard west of the Bío Bío-Aluminé Fault a structural unit related to tectonic depression of Bío Bío-Aluminé trough and the Nacimientos del Aluminé and Moquehue calderas.

Descripción: The geomorphologic analysis of the study area led to distinguish some formations not considered in previous geological research, as well as to explain the characteristics of the present relief. Thirteen principal geomorphic units produced by different geomorphic processes are recognized. Their variety and incidence through the time are expressed in the glacial morphogenesis concentrated in the western part of the Cordillera del Viento, in the volcanic landscape that predominates in the northern and eastern sectors (calderas, volcanoes, lava flows), in the structural control that defines the morphology of the fluvial process in the central zone and a firstly recognized important landslide to the north of Tricao Malal. As a result of the methodology employed two geological units of different age in the western part of the Tromen-Waile volcanic field were distinguished, which were initially interpreted as a single formation. A limited but consistent structural analysis of the region is also included.

Descripción: In the southern segment of the Copahue- Pino Hachado block, next to the Moquehue-Alumine lacustrine basin, an anomalous concentration of calderas, resulting from a Pliocene-Quaternary volcanic activity was recognized. The Ñireco caldera, which was proposed as part of this caldera complex, is the reason of the present work. The authors object the interpretation of such a morphostructural feature on the basis of a detailed geomorphologic, structural and stratigraphic analyses of the area. The limits of the proposed caldera coincide mostly with fluvial valleys that seem to be controlled by previous structures like faults and regional lineaments. There are no evidences that could suggest the presence of a volcanic complex that theoretically contains such a depression, or for its external and internal flanks. The central sector of the proposed caldera presents the highest altitude values of the region (± 2,900 m a.s.l.), which highly surpass those of the Principal Cordillera at these latitudes. The local stratigraphy of the area, is dominated by the oldest rocks of the region (Upper Paleozoic granitoids and Triassic volcanic and volcaniclastic sequences), and shows not temporal coincidence with the Pliocene-Quaternary volcanic activity, well represented immediately to the north. The study area falls on the contrary into a thick-skinned west-verging fold-and-thrust-belt, where tectonic inversion played a central role.