Stratigraphy and depositional architecture of the Viamonte Formation, Miocene, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina: the interplay between deep-marine transverse and longitudinal depositional systems

Resumen

In the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego, Miocene, foreland Austral basin strata of the Viamonte Formation are currently interpreted as deep marine channel-levee complexes. New data on sedimentary facies, paleocurrents, and stratigraphic relationships documents, however, more complex settings. We recognize in the Viamonte Formation three higher-rank architectural elements: 1) a transverse system of gullies and other slope deposits, including gully axis, gully off-axis/gully margin, and slope-gully abandonment sub-elements; 2) an axial system, the channel belt, including channel fill, lateral accretion, internal-levee/terrace, and basal slumps sub-elements; and 3) another axial system, the external levee. Gullies in the transverse system are carved into external-levee deposits of the Viamonte Formation or older lobe deposits. Dominant sedimentary facies are mass transport deposits in the gully fill; thin-bedded turbidites in the external levee, internal levee, and terraces; and thick, high-density turbidite sandstones in the channel fill. In the transverse system, paleocurrents are directed to the NW-NE, down dip high-relief progradational clinoforms, and in the axial systems to the SE, parallel to the basin foredeep. Axial systems are located either at the base, or at subtle slope-breaks of transverse clinoforms. The envisaged depositional architectures of these axial and transverse systems offer excellent analogues for similar, poorly exposed Upper Cretaceous-Paleogene Austral basin turbidites and may help to interpret the source and routing of sand-rich deposits in the adjacent Malvinas foreland basin.