The ocean crust of Rocas Verdes Basin in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

M. E. CERREDO; M. B. REMESAL; A. A.TASSONE; M. MENICHETTI

Mendoza

Simposio; III Simposio Argentino Jurásico; 2007

The ensialic back-arc Rocas Verdes Basin (RVB) evolved along the SW border of Gondwana from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, after a widespread event of continental rifting and associated a silicic magmatism along the palaeo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. Restricted outcrops of basaltic/andesitic rocks in Argentine Tierra del Fuego are considered as a phase of the igneous event that formed the Rocas Verdes ophiolite complexes elsewhere. The oceanic remnants crop out as discontinuous belts, of roughly E-W orientation in the central and SW areas of Tierra del Fuego. The rock association is