Quaternary tectonic activity in the piedmont of Cordillera Frontal (33°S-34°S), Mendoza

LAURA PERUCCA; MARCELO ZÁRATE; ADRIANA MEHL

Cenozoic Geology of the Central Andes of Argentina,

SCS Publisher

Lugar: Salta; Año: 2011; p. 317 - 328

This paper reviews the characteristics and kinematics of the faults situated in the Cordillera Frontal piedmont from the NWpart of the Tunuyán depression in the north to the arroyo Papagayos in the south. Two east vergent reverse faults occur at LomaSola del Diablo (northern part of Lomas del Peral) with undifferentiated Miocene-Pliocene deposits overlying tectonicallyfanglomeradic deposits of Los Mesones Fomation (lower Pleistocene). Three N-S and west-facing scarps have been identified atLomas del Jaboncillo, with the most developed (Chupasangral) situated to the east. To the south, in the vicinity of Cerro Chalet,an aligned group of small granitic hills with N-S trend has been uplifted by the Chalet fault; southward, the NW-SE Papagayosfault zone is located on the northern margin of arroyo Papagayos. A compressive tectonic activity has predominated in thenorthern part of the Tunuyán depression from the Miocene to the middle Pleistocene (Las Tunas Formation); a transtensiveregime would have dominated in the southern part (Arroyo Papagayos). No evidence of tectonic activity has been observed in thelate Pleistocene-Holocene record. As a working hypothesis, it is considered that the Tunuyán depression, regarded as a forelandbasin, has been affected by passive transport and resembles a piggyback basin