Clay mineral assemblages as indicators of paleoenvironmental and diagenetic dynamics in the Neogene Fiambalá Basin, NW Argentina

REINOSO CARBONELL, VIRGINIA V.; COLLO, GILDA; WUNDERLIN, CECILIA A.; ALASINO, PABLO H.; CICCIOLI, PATRICIA L.; ROCHER, SEBASTIAN; MAZA, SANTIAGO

JOURNAL OF SOUTH AMERICAN EARTH SCIENCES

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2022 vol. 118

0895-9811

Clay mineral characterization is a valuable tool for unraveling the evolution of continental sedimentary basins. The Fiambalá basin is a foreland Andean basin located in the Southwest of the province of Catamarca (Argentina), on the flat subduction segment. In order to characterize its paleoenvironment and post-depositional evolution, petrographic, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning microscopy (SEM-EDS) studies were carried out in detrital and volcaniclastic samples from the Tambería, Guanchín, and Rodados de la Puna Fms. Petrographic and XRD analyses show a predominance of phyllosilicates, quartz, plagioclase, and low proportions of feldspar and anhydrite, sporadic calcite, analcime, heulandite, and hematite. In the XRD fraction