Early Miocene detrital zircon age from fluvial deposits of La Marcelina Formation in the Deseado Massif, Southern Patagonia, Argentina

Inés Aramendía; Sol Noetinger; Roberto Pujana; David Barbeu; Juan García-Massini; Sebastián Mirabelli

Authors

Inés Aramendía IPGP, CCT Conicet-Cenpat
Sol Noetinger Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Roberto Pujana Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
David Barbeu School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, University of South Carolina. SC 29208, Columbia, USA
Juan García-Massini Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica ´ (CRILAR), Provincia de La Rioja, UNLaR, SEGEMAR, UNCa, CONICET, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/nº F5330AGA Anillaco, La Rioja, Argentina
Sebastián Mirabelli Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica ´ (CRILAR), Provincia de La Rioja, UNLaR, SEGEMAR, UNCa, CONICET, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/nº F5330AGA Anillaco, La Rioja, Argentina

Keywords:

Burdigalian, Maximum Depositional Age, Zircon Provenance, Patagonia

Abstract

The La Marcelina Formation (LMF) in the southern Deseado Massif area (c. 47° 55' S) represents a 23 m thick sedimentary succession deposited within a low-energy fluvial paleoenvironment. The age of this unit, formerly considered as Eocene due to its palynological assemblage, is adjusted by zircon U-Pb Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) from a sandstone bed at the middle part of the unit. The results reveal a maximum depositional age of ~20 Ma (Early Miocene, Burdigalian). The detrital zircon provenance analysis indicates zircon grains originated mostly in the Jurassic, with limited contributions from the Cretaceous, Permian, and Paleocene. The new age for LMF allows correlating these beds to the upper section of the continental Río Leona Formation in the southern Austral-Magallanes Basin.

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