Controls on deposition of the Tordillo Formation in southern Mendoza (34- 36ºS): implications for the Kimmeridgian tectonic setting of the Neuquén basin

JOSÉ F. MESCUA, JULIETA SURIANO, JAZMÍN SCHENCMAN, LAURA GIAMBIAGI, PATRICIA SRUOGA AND ELIZABETH BALGORD

Opening and Closure of the Neuquén Basin in the Southern Andes

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020; p. 127 - 157

The Tordillo Formation is a continental succession of red beds deposited in the Neuquén basinduring the Kimmeridgian. Based on sedimentary and structural evidence we document anextensional setting in the northern part of the basin, which contrasts with a transpressionalenvironment in the southernmost section. We disscuss the tectonic setting of the Neuquén basinduring the deposition of the Tordillo Formation, which appears controlled by the behavior of thesubduction system and the break-up of Pangea. We propose that trench rollback determined aregional extensional setting. This stress field was locally modified by the clockwise rotation ofSouth America due to the initial break-up of Pangea, that ended with the opening of the SouthAtlantic. This rotation produced a transpressive stress field in the southern Neuquén basin in whichthe strucures generated during the Permian collission of the Patagonia terrane were reactivated asstrike-slip and reverse faults.