Age and petrography and geochemistry features of subvolcanic outcrops from Cerro León Formation, east of the Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz

Abstract

New subvolcanic outcrops, correlated with the Cerro León Formation and located in the eastern Deseado Massif, are presented. This unit outcrops in two sectors, the Leonardo depression and the Bahía Laura outcrop of the Río Deseado Complex. In the first sector there are thirteen dikes and a sill intruding permian sedimentary rocks of the La Golondrina Formation and in the second sector, there are three dikes intruding the basement rocks. They are gray to black rocks, frequently altered, with microgranular to porphiritic texture, with plagioclase, diopside (En₄₂ Fs₁₁ Wo₄₇) and Mg-rich hornblende (magnesio hastingsite) phenocrystals in a holocrystaline matrix with intergranular texture. They are subalkalic rocks, basalt-andesite in composition and with calc-alkaline affinities. The Ar/Ar age obtained from one of these rocks (180.1±1.5 Ma) represents the first determination on this unit and is coherent with the stratigraphic relationships observed in this formation. Comparison with jurassic igneous rocks from the Deseado Massif geological province, favor the temporal and genetic relationship with the middle to upper volcanic-pyroclastic event (Bajo Pobre Formation and Bahía Laura Group). Nevertheless, differences in Ar/Ar ages, suggest a gap between subvolcanic event (180 Ma) and the middle to upper Jurassic volcanism (177 a 150 Ma). It is proposed, preliminarily, that subvolcanic bodies from Cerro León Formation represent the first magmatic evidences of the Jurassic rift in the Deseado Massif.