Cuyo Basin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cuyo Basin (Spanish: Cuenca Cuyana) is a sedimentary basin in Mendoza Province, western Argentina. The Cuyo Basin has a NNW-SSE elongated shape and is limited to the west by the Sierra Pintada System and to the east by the Pampean pericraton. To the north the basin reaches the area around the city of Mendoza.[1]
Cuyo Basin | |
---|---|
Cuenca Cuyana | |
Coordinates | 34°15′S 68°34′W |
Etymology | Cuyo River |
Country | ![]() |
State(s) | Mendoza, San Juan |
Cities | Mendoza |
Characteristics | |
On/Offshore | Onshore |
Boundaries | Andes |
Part of | Andean foreland basins |
Area | ~30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi) |
Hydrology | |
River(s) | Cuyo River |
Geology | |
Basin type | Foreland basin |
Plate | South American |
Orogeny | Andean |
Age | Triassic-Pliocene |
Stratigraphy | Stratigraphy |
Field(s) | Tupungato |
The Cuyo Basin has an approximate area of 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi).[2] It has two major sub-basins: Cacheuta (Spanish: Subcuenca Cacheuta) in the north and Alvear (Spanish: Subcuenca Alvear) in the south. The northern fringes of Cacheuta sub-basin reaches into San Juan Province. The basin existed already during the Triassic but its current shape is derivative of the Andean orogeny.[1]
The basin originated as a rift basin in the context of extensional tectonics and crustal thinning that followed the Paleozoic Gondwanide orogeny.[note 1]
The stratigraphy of the Cuyo Basin comprises the following formations:
Age bold is SALMA type | Group | Formation | Lithologies | Depositional environment | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pleistocene | Tunuyán | [4] | |||
Mio-Pliocene Huayquerian | Huayquerías | Mudstones, sandstones, tuff | Fluvial | [5] | |
Miocene | Mogotes | Alluvial | [6] | ||
Miocene | La Pilona | Shales and sandstones | Alluvial | [6] | |
Middle Miocene Laventan | Mariño | Sandstones | Alluvial and eolian | [6] | |
Late Oligocene Deseadan | |||||
Early Oligocene | Hiatus | [6] | |||
Priabonian | |||||
Bartonian Divisaderan | Divisadero Largo | Fluvial | [6] | ||
Lutetian | Papagayos | Fluvial | [6] | ||
Early Eocene | Hiatus | [6] | |||
Paleocene | |||||
Late Cretaceous | |||||
Early Cretaceous | Punta de las Bardas | Basalts | Volcanic | [6] | |
Late Jurassic | |||||
Barrancas | Sandstones and conglomerates | Alluvial to fluvial | [6] | ||
Rhaetian | Uspallata | Río Blanco | Fluvial-deltaic | [6][3] | |
Norian | |||||
Carnian | Cacheuta | Black shales | Lacustrine | [6][7] | |
Potrerillos | Tuffs, conglomerates, sandstones, shales | Alluvial to fluvial | [6][7][8] | ||
Ladinian | Cerro de las Cabras | Mudstones and conglomerates | [6][7] | ||
Anisian | |||||
Olenekian | Río Mendoza | Volcaniclastic conglomerates | [6][7] | ||
Induan | |||||
Late Permian | Choiyoi Group | [3] | |||
Carboniferous | Hiatus | [9][10] | |||
Devonian | |||||
Early Paleozoic | Cuyania | [9][10] | |||
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