The Exhumation of the Northern Patagonian Massif Gondwana Planation Surface due to Uprising during the Oligocene

EUGENIO ARAGÓN; EMILIA YOLANDA AGUILERA; CLAUDIA E. CAVAROZZI; ALEJANDRO RIBOT

Gondwana Landscapes in Southern South America. Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil

springer

Año: 2014; p. 517 - 525

The Altiplano (or High-plain) of the Northern Patagonian Massif is a large, 100,000 km2 geomorphological unit that rose from sea level to at least 1200 metres above sea level (m a.s.l.) in Early Oligocene times, as a consequence of epeirogenic uplift. This uniform tableland feature is essentially a Cretaceous planation surface carved on Paleozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Northern Patagonian Massif. This planation surface had been preserved by a thin and scattered cover of Maastrichtian-Danian marine sediments and Late Oligocene-Early Miocene basaltic flows. Erosion since Middle Miocene times at this tableland has exposed much of the Gondwana planation surface, and developed numerous basaltic plateaus by relief inversion.