Late Cenozoic Landforms and Landscape Evolution of Península Valdés

ANDRÉS BILMES; PABLO JOSÉ BOUZA; CESAR MARIOROSTAGNO; HECTOR DEL VALLE

Late Cenozoic of Península Valdés, Patagonia, Argentina

Springer

Año: 2017; p. 105 - 129

The present landscape of the Península Valdés is the result of a complexinterrelation between climatic (aeolian deposition, windblown processes, glacial andinterglacial cycles, pluvial and fluvial processes), tectonic, and eustatic controls thathad work in the Andean foreland during the late Cenozoic. Based on a geomorphologicalapproach, which includes new descriptions, interpretations, and hierarchicallyclassification of the main landforms of this region, together with previousgeomorphological surveys, the Península Valdés area was grouped in three majorgeomorphologic systems: Uplands and Plains, Great Endorheic Basins, and CoastalZone. Based on the interrelationship among these three geomorphological systemsthe landscape evolution of the late Cenozoic of Península Valdés could be summarizedin five main stages: (1) development of fluvial and alluvial systems duringthe Pliocene early Pleistocene; (2) closed basin formation associated to tectonicprocesses during the early middle Plesitocene; (3) first marine transgressions duringthe late Pleistocene; (4) flooding of the gulfs and construction of the peninsula in thelate Plesitocene?Holocene; (5) final flooding in the region during the middleHolocene.