Tectonic events reflected by palaeocurrents, zircon geochronology, and palaeobotany in the Sierra Baguales of Chilean Patagonia
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Gutiérrez, Néstor M.
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Tectonic events reflected by palaeocurrents, zircon geochronology, and palaeobotany in the Sierra Baguales of Chilean Patagonia
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Abstract
The Sierra Baguales, situated north of the Torres Del Paine National Park in the Magallanes region of southern
Chile, shows awell-exposed stratigraphic sequence ranging fromthe Late Cretaceous to late Pliocene, which presents
a unique opportunity to study the evolution of sedimentological styles and trends, palaeoclimate changes,
and tectonic events during this period. The depositional environment changed froma continental slope and shelf
during the Cenomanian-Campanian (Tres Pasos Formation) to deltaic between the Campanian-Maastrichtian
(Dorotea Formation) and estuarine in the Lutetian-Bartonian (Man Aike Formation). During the Rupelian, a continental
environment with meandering rivers and overbank marshes was established (Río Leona Formation).
This areawas flooded in the early Burdigalian (Estancia 25 deMayo Formation) during the Patagonian Transgression,
but emerged again during the late Burdigalian (Santa Cruz Formation). Measured palaeocurrent directions
in this Mesozoic-Cenozoic succession indicate source areas situated between the northeast and east-southeast
during the Late Cretaceous, east-southeast during the middle Eocene, and southwest during the early Oligocene
to earlyMiocene. This is confirmed by detrital zircon age populations in the different units,which can be linked to
probable sources of similar ages in these areas. The east-southeastern provenance is here identified as the Antarctic
Peninsula or its northeastern extension, which is postulated to have been attached to Fuegian Patagonia
during the Eocene. The southwestern and western sources were exhumed during gradual uplift of the Southern
Patagonian Andes, coinciding with a change from marine to continental conditions in the Magallanes-Austral
Basin, as well as a decrease in mean annual temperature and precipitation indicated by fossil leaves in the Río
Leona Formation. The rain shadow to the east of the Andes thus started to develop here during the late Eocene-
early Oligocene (~34Ma), long before the “Quechua Phase” of Andean tectonics (19–18Ma) that is generally
invoked for its evolution at lower latitudes.
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URI: https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/168775
DOI: 10.1016/j.tecto.2016.12.014
ISSN: 00401951
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Tectonophysics 695 (2017) 76–99
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