Descripción: Fil:Marenssi, S.A. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.

Descripción: Isotopic age determinations (40Ar/39Ar) and associated magnetic polarity stratigraphy for Casamayoran age fauna at Gran Barranca (Chubut, Argentina) indicate that the Barrancan 'subage' of the Casamayoran South American Land Mammal 'Age' is late Eocene, 18 to 20 million years younger than hitherto supposed. Correlations of the radioisotopically dated magnetic polarity stratigraphy at Gran Barranca with the Cenozoic geomagnetic polarity time scale indicate that Barrancan faunal levels at the Gran Barranca date to within the magnetochronologic interval from 35.34 to 36.62 megannums (Ma) or 35.69 to 37.60 Ma. This age revision constrains the timing of an adaptive shift in mammalian herbivores toward hypsodonty. Specifically, the appearance of large numbers of hypsodont taxa in South America occurred sometime between 36 and 32 Ma (late Eocene-early Oligocene), at approximately the same time that other biotic and geologic evidence has suggested the Southern high latitudes experienced climatic cooling associated with Antarctic glaciation.

Descripción: A composite section, 1400 m thick, is established for the Upper Cretaceous-Paleogene strata in the fold and thrust belt of the Andes Fueguinos, south of 54° 30′S. The basal Policarpo Formation, > 350 m thick, consists of tuffaceous sandstones and bioturbated sandstones and siltstones. The ammonites Maorites densicostatus and Diplomoceras sp.; foraminifera common to the Gaudryina healyi Zone; and the dynocysts Manumiella seelandica and Operculodium cf. azcaratei indicate a Maastrichtian age. The Paleocene to lower Eocene include four new formations. The Cabo Leticia Formation, c.150 m, Paleocene, consists of gravity flows deposits: brecchias; conglomerates; and massive, tuffaceous sandstones. La Barca Formation, c. 220 m, includes two members: LB1, tuffaceous sandstones and intercalated carbonaceous siltstones; and LB2, black mudstones with Palaeocystodinium golzowense and Spiroplectammina spectabilis. P. golzowense and the Bulimina karpatica Assemblage in LB1 indicate a late Paleocene age. Punta Noguera Formation, 380 m, is dominated by glauconite rich, massive, tuffaceous sandstones with interbedded turbidite packages. The dynocyst group Apectodinium, Deflandrea robusta, Palaeocystodinium sp., and Odontodinium askinae; the foraminifera Alabamina creta, Charltonina acutimarginata, Valvulineria teurensis and the first ocurrence of Elphidium and Cribrorotalia suggest an age near the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. The Cerro Ruperto Formation, 200 m, is dominated by glauconite rich, silty very fine sandstones and siltstones; dominance of Deflandrea dartmooria indicate an early Eocene age. Resting on angular unconformity, the Río Bueno Formation, c. 60-80 m, consists of carbonate rocks; its member RB1, rhythmically bedded grainstones, with the planktic foraminifera Planorotalites australiformis and Subbotina linaperta is of early middle Eocene age; and its member RB2, regular alternation of grainstones and bioturbated marls and micrites, with Elphidium saginatum and Bulimina cf. bortonica, is assigned to the mid middle Eocene. The sedimentary and stratigraphic features of the Maastrichtian/Eocene have a strong tectonic control, suggesting that the foreland phase of evolution of the basin has been active at least since the Maastrichtian.

Descripción: Retrotapes, new genus, comprises a group of Neoaustral bivalves that appeared in the southern circumpolar regions by the Eocene and have since been confined to the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere. Its presence in the Tertiary strata of Antarctica and southern South America reflects an active faunal interchange between both regions during the Eocene. Retrotapes is here proposed to include to those Recent and Tertiary representatives of the Subfamily Tapetinae (Family Veneridae) from southern South America and Antarctica that had been previously placed in Venus Linné, 1758, Marcia H. and A. Adams, 1857, Eurhomalea Cossmann,1920, Samarangia Dall,1902, and Kalelysia Römer, 1857. The Argentine Tertiary species Retrotapes ninfasiensis, new species, R. fuegoensis, new species, R. striatolamellata (Ihering, 1897) and R. scutata (Ihering, 1907) are here described and illustrated. The Recent Argentine Venus exalbida Chemnitz, 1795 and Venus lenticularis Sowerby, 1835, the Antarctic V. antarctica Sharman and Newton, 1894 and V. newtoni Wilckens, 1911 (Eocene-early Oligocène?, La Meseta Formation), and the Neogene Chilean species V. navidadis Philippi, 1887 and V. colchaguensis Philippi, 1887 are also included in this new genus.

Descripción: Magmatism related to the growth and migration of the Andean arc was developed from the 36°40'S to the 38°20'S latitude, in the northwestern sector of the Neuquén Province, by the end of the Mesozoic. Hypabyssal and extrusive facies, which outcrop in the Pichaihue area, were described based on petrologic studies. The first ones are composed of andesites that are emplaced as lacoliths, dikes or sills intruding the Mesozoic sedimentary sequences. In addition, basalts outcrops were recognized. The extrusive facies consist of breccia or massive lavas and little domes. The geochemistry reveals an arc-like calc-alkaline signature with a normal crust and trace-element patterns which suggest a similar source. Based on regional knowledge, three groups are proposed: Cerro Mocho dikes with Ti anomalies and higher Sm/Yb; extrusive facies of the Upper Cretaceous- Paleocene (Rivera Andesite); and the hypabyssal facies of thr Eocene (Colipilli Dikes). Finally, the occurrences of these rocks in this segment of the Andes indicate an important shift to the East of the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene volcanic arc that reveals its easternmost position.

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.

Descripción: Nearly all data regarding land-plant turnover across the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary come from western North America, relatively close to the Chicxulub, Mexico impact site. Here, we present a palynological analysis of a section in Patagonia that shows a marked fall in diversity and abundance of nearly all plant groups across the K/Pg interval. Minimum diversity occurs during the earliest Danian, but only a few palynomorphs show true extinctions. The low extinction rate is similar to previous observations from New Zealand. The differing responses between the Southern and Northern hemispheres could be related to the attenuation of damage with increased distance from the impact site, to hemispheric differences in extinction severity, or to both effects. Legacy effects of the terminal Cretaceous event also provide a plausible, partial explanation for the fact that Paleocene and Eocene macrofloras from Patagonia are among the most diverse known globally. Also of great interest, earliest Danian assemblages are dominated by the gymnosperm palynomorphs Classopollis of the extinct Mesozoic conifer family Cheirolepidiaceae. The expansion of Classopollis after the boundary in Patagonia is another example of typically Mesozoic plant lineages surviving into the Cenozoic in southern Gondwanan areas, and this greatly supports previous hypotheses of high latitude southern regions as biodiversity refugia during the end-Cretaceous global crisis. © 2012 Barreda et al.

Descripción: This paper discusses the general atmospheric circulation over Patagonia on the basis of the principal palaeoclimate forcings: continental drift, orography, variations in the greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, evolution of the atmosphere and the oceans, changes in the orbit of the Earth, albedo feedbacks, and the land surface. These processes affect climate on time scales of millions to hundreds of thousands of years. Additionally, orbital forcing has had a major influence on climate during the Quaternary. The palaeo-atmospheric circulation of Patagonia is analyzed for the Early to Late Jurassic, the Cretaceous, the Late Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the Tortonian-Oligocene cooling, the Pliocene, the Quaternary including the Last Glacial Maximum, the Holocene Optimum, and the last millennium changes. Alternative palaeo-atmospheric circulations from climatic modelling scenarios through the ages are reviewed and compared with proxy data. Detailed and updated reference information on the topics analyzed is also provided. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London.

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 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: The Larsen Basin is the depositional area including all the upper Mesozoic-lower Cenozoic sedimentary rocks on the continental shelf of the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The western boundary between the basin fill and the rocks forming its technical basement, is not exposed, and was defined on the basis of aeromagnetic data. On petrological grounds, the Mesozoic marine sedimentary rocks exposed on western Tabarin Peninsula, at the north-eastern extremity of the Antarctic Peninsula, are assigned to the lower part of the Aptian-Eocene regressive megasequence that forms the basin filling. These rocks are faulted against sediments of the Antarctic Peninsula magmatic arc, suggesting that post- depositional tectonic movements probably occurred. This compressional deformation is assigned to mid-Cretaceous times, when the Coniacian partial basin inversion was accompanied by westward-verging deformation at the western basin margin. Although the original extent of the basin cannot be discerned from these data, the lithostratigraphical evidence and geographical position of the basin sediments, together with terrestrial magnetic data, confirm that the Larsen Basin extends onto the southern part of Tabarin Peninsula, and indicate that the western limit of the basin is located northward of the previously proposed limit. © 2004 Asociación Geológica Argentina.