Cerro Granito Granitoids: lithology, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and regional correlations

Abstract

Cerro Granito is an oval shaped hill, with a maximum height of 890 m above sea level, which outcrops in the middle of Jurassic layers as an anticlinorium, marking out the regional line of the Huincul Ridge that subdivides the Neuquén basin in two. The core of Cerro Granito is composed mainly of (1) biotitic-amphibolic gray granodiorites, (2) biotitic-epidotic light gray monzogranites, (3) biotitic porphyritic pinkish gray leucogranites (4) biotitic porphyritic gray tonalites and (5) decametric dikes of gray andesites, slightly green purple, with an approximate NW-SE strike. From the central sector and towards the NE, intense fracturing, and a predominance of aplopegmatitic dikes trending NNE are recognized. In the present work, new petrographic data of five magmatic facies are provided, two of which were radiometrically dated. The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age older than 281 Ma for the amphibolic biotitic granodiorite, together with the existence of a porphyritic biotitic tonalite facies, reinforce the proposal of linking the plutonic units of Cerro Granito with the Chachil Plutonic Complex. This igneous event would be equivalent to the one exposed in the Chilean Coastal Batholith and pre-dates the climax of the Choiyoi event. After approximately 90 Ma, the next magmatic record corresponds to an andesitic dike, which confirms that the final exhumation of the granitoids was after 190 Ma (Sinemurian - Pliesbachian) and, from all points of view, prior to the deposition of the marine sequences of the Toarcian Lajas Formation.