The pre-mid Jurassic basement in the Chihuido anticline, Malargüe: Magmatic and tectonic evolution

Abstract

The basement of Neuquén basin crops out in the Chihuido anticline of southern Mendoza province and comprises three volcano-sedimentary units bounded by angular uncoformities. The oldest unit is El Fortín volcano-sedimentary complex, composed of andesitic breccia, lava flows and domes, as well as conglomerate and sandstone intruded by a thick rhyolitic to monzogranitic dyke dated at 250 ± 5 Ma by the conventional U-Pb zircon method. According to the radiometric age, the El Fortín Complex can be correlated with the Choiyoi Group of the Frontal Cordillera and San Rafael Block. The Tronquimalal Group (late Triassic, 370 m thick) rests on the El Fortín Complex with an angular unconformity. It is composed of alternating sedimentary rocks with volcanogenic clasts and andesitic breccia. Beds have a wedge-shaped geometry due to the short-lived depocentres and partially to the catastrophic deposition. The angular unconformity between the Tronquimalal Group and El Fortín Complex is assigned to the widely recognized huarpic diastrophic phase. A set of inter-fingering conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones, attributed to the Remoredo Formation, overlies the Tronquimalal Group. The conglomerate clasts have igneous compositions, particularly volcanics and granitoids whose lithologies are similar to those of the El Fortín complex. Therefore we suggest that these rocks were derived from the destruction of Permo-Triassic volcanoes in a process favoured by diastrophic movements. The Remoredo Formation is conformably overlain by the Bardas Blancas Formation (Bajocian). The volcanic activity in the study area was continuous during the Permian to late Triassic, though its intensity faded out after the huarpic phase.