Paleomagnetic evidence of an Early Paleozoic rotated terrane in NW Argentina. A clue for Gondwana-Laurentia interaction?.

CONTI, CARLOS M.; RAPALINI, AUGUSTO E.; COIRA, BEATRIZ; KOUKHARSKY, MAGDALENA

GEOLOGY

Geological Society of America

Lugar: Tucson; Año: 1996 vol. 24 p. 953 - 956

0091-7613

Paleomagnetic evidence of an early Paleozoic rotated terrane in northwest Argentina: A clue for Gondwana-Laurentia interaction?C. M. Conti1, A. E. Rapalini1, B. Coira2 and M. Koukharsky3 1 Laboratorio de Paleomagnetismo "D. A. Valencio" Departamento Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellon II, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), Buenos Aires, Argentina2 Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, C. C. No. 258 (4600) S. S. de Jujuy, Argentina3 Departamento Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellon II, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), Buenos Aires, Argentina Paleomagnetic results from three Lower Ordovician units in northwest Argentina are reported. When assessed with available geologic evidence, these data permit the definition of the Puna Oriental–Famatina rotated terrane. Paleogeographic reconstructions based on these paleomagnetic results place Puna Oriental–Famatina in the South Iapetus ocean, close to the Gondwana margin and near some of the Lower-Middle Ordovician Central Mobile belt terranes of the Northern Appalachians. The accretion of Puna Oriental–Famatina may have resulted from the closure of this ocean in Middle Ordovician time.