Paleomagnetism of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Vaca Muerta Formation, Neuquén basin, Argentina

IGLESIA-LLANOS, M.P.; RAPALINI, A.E.; KIETZMANN, D.A.; VAZQUEZ, C.; PALMA, R.M.

Maresias

Congreso; LATINMAG; 2015

Asociación Latinoamericana de Paleomagnetismo y Geomagnetismo

A paleomagnetic study was carried out in three drill cores and an outcrop section from the Vaca Muerta Formation in the Neuquén basin, Argentina, one of the most important unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs in the world. This geological unit is up to 400 m-thick and bears ammonites from the Andean Region that indicate upper Jurassic- lower Cretaceous ages. We isolated several normal andreverse polarity zones that were correlated with the international geomagnetic polarity time scale using the corresponding ammonite Zones. Preliminary results are very consistent, and the paleomagnetic analysis is still on course. Rock magnetic studies suggest that the magnetic carriers are pyrrhotite and Ti-magnetite.