Estudios sedimentológicos de los depósitos carboníferos y pérmicos del borde occidental de la Puna argentina

C. I. GALLI , M. C. MOYA Y M. ARNOSIO

Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina

Asociación Geológica Argentina

Año: 2009

0004-4822

The study of Carboniferous - Permian deposits exposed in the South-West of Salar del Rincón, on the western edge of the Argentinean Puna has been carried out. These deposits include the continental red beds of the Cerro Oscuro Formation (Upper Carboniferous) and the marine limestones of the Arizaro Formation (Lower to Middle Permian). The stratigraphic column analyzed consists of 480 m of clastic and carbonate rocks with interbedded volcaniclastic levels. The deposits integrate a synclinal structure of NNWSSE trend, which pitches to the NW. The Carboniferous-Permian deposits were analized in both flanks of the syncline. Based on the stratigraphic and sedimentologic characteristics analyzed in the Cerro Oscuro and Arizaro Formations, new paleoenvironmental interpretations are given: i. The thinning and fining sequence that documents the Cerro Oscuro Formation includes, from base to top, debris flows accumulated in an alluvial fan system, and three cycles or minor positive sequences, corresponding to a sand-gravel braided fluvial system. ii. In the analyzed sections, the relationship between the Cerro Oscuro and Arizaro formations is a paraconformity. iii.i. The thinning and fining sequence that documents the Cerro Oscuro Formation includes, from base to top, debris flows accumulated in an alluvial fan system, and three cycles or minor positive sequences, corresponding to a sand-gravel braided fluvial system. ii. In the analyzed sections, the relationship between the Cerro Oscuro and Arizaro formations is a paraconformity. iii.ii. In the analyzed sections, the relationship between the Cerro Oscuro and Arizaro formations is a paraconformity. iii.iii. The Arizaro Formation includes three cycles developed in a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic marine shelf paleoenvironment. Mineralogic and petrographic characteristics of the recognized facies are described and a provenance analysis wich suggests the existence of different source areas is included. The transgression that documents the Arizaro Formation is analyzed and it has been related with the global sea level rise event caused by deglaciation phenomena during the Artinskian-Kungurian time. The effect of tectonic and volcanic processes that would have affected the basin during their evolution is discussed.