The Late Palaeozoic of Western Gondwana: new insights from South American records

SPALLETTI, L.; LIMARINO, C. Y GEUNA, S.

GEOLOGICA ACTA

UNIV BARCELONA

Lugar: Barcelona; Año: 2010 vol. 8 p. 341 - 347

1695-6133

All the contributions of this special publication were presented during the V Simposio Argentino del Paleozoico Superior which was held in Buenos Aires on April 21-23, 2008. The papers themselves highlight a number of specific themes and represent a collection of case-studies on different Late Palaeozoic basins of southern South America, addressing the major issues discussed before from different perspectives: The orogenic evolution of the western Gondwana margin is dealt from geophysical (Rapalini et al.), palaeomagnetic (Geuna et al.), sedimentological (Tedesco et al., Spalletti et al., Krapovickas et al.) and biostratigraphic (Sterren and Cisterna) studies. The contributions provided in these papers highlight two major aspects: 1. the necessity of integrating information derived from different disciplines in order to obtain reliable stratigraphic, palaeogeographic and palaeoenvironmental models used in orogenic reconstructions and 2. the importance of an enhanced knowledge of the western Gondwana active margin to reach a better understanding of the whole Gondwana evolution.   The possible effects of the Permian-Triassic volcanism in the sedimentological record and faunas are discussed by Spalletti et al. and Sterren and Cisterna respectively. According to Spalletti et al. the existence of an important arid phase during the Permian could have been related to the Permian-Triassic volcanism, while Sterren and Cisterna suggested that volcanic activity and relatively warmer marine currents could have controlled the bivalve and brachiopod distribution during the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian. The timing of the Late Palaeozoic glacial events by palynological dating of two glacial deposits in Andean basins is discussed by Pérez Loinaze et al. (a) who emphasize that at least two glacial intervals are recognized in the western Andean basins from Argentina. These two glacial events can be correlated with others placed in central and eastern Gondwana giving new information for global-scale palaeoclimatic reconstructions.   . Finally, new palaeontological data to be integrated to the Late Palaeozoic bioestratigraphic record in South America (Beri et al., Pérez Loinaze et al. (b) and Taboada and Pagani) allow to enlarge the biocrhonological-chronostratigraphic dating of glacial, interglacial and postglacial events in South America. These papers improve the biostratigraphic schemes and palaeoclimatic models in the region, discussing similarities and differences, not only with other places in South America but also in Gondwana.             It is the guest editors’ intention to have contributed in this special issue with new advances in the knowledge of the western Gondwana geology, which can be applied to a broader and more refined understanding of the history of the whole Gondwana supercontinent.