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Provenance of late Palaeozoic metasediments of the Patagonian proto-Pacific margin (southernmost Chile and Argentina)

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Abstract

In this provenance study of late Palaeozoic metasediments of the Eastern Andean Metamorphic Complex (EAMC) along the south Patagonian proto-Pacific margin of Gondwana, the palaeogeological setting of the continental margin in Devonian–Carboniferous and Permian times is reconstructed. The study is based on detrital heavy mineral contents, chemical compositions of tourmaline grains, and whole rock element and Nd-Sr isotopic compositions. Element and isotopic compositions reveal that Devonian–Carboniferous metaturbidites deposited before the development of a Late Carboniferous–Permian magmatic arc along the margin were mainly fed from felsic, recycled, old continental rocks. The last recycling phase involved erosion of metasediments that were exposed in Patagonia. Feeder systems to the basin cut either through epidote-rich or garnet-rich metasediments. In Permian time, EAMC metaturbidites were deposited next to the evolving magmatic arc and were derived from felsic, crustal rocks. Two provenance domains are recognised. The metasediments of the northern one are chemically similar to those of the Devonian–Carboniferous metasediments. This domain was fed from the metasedimentary host rocks of the magmatic arc. The southern domain probably was fed from the arc proper, as indicated mainly by the dominance of metaplutonic lithic fragments, abundant detrital biotite, and the major element composition of the metasediments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; grants Ba 1011/17-1, -2 and -3). Juan-Pablo Lacassie and Nicole Dobrzinski are acknowledged for rock samples. Mukul Bhatia, Keith Crook, Hilmar von Eynatten and Arne Willner are thanked for valuable comments on earlier versions of the paper and Ralph O Howard Jr is acknowledged for checking the English grammar.

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  1. Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Corrensstraße 24, 48 149, Muenster, Germany

    Carita Augustsson & Heinrich Bahlburg

  2. Zentrallaboratorium für Geochronologie, Mineralogisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Corrensstraße 24, 48 149, Muenster, Germany

    Carita Augustsson

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  1. Carita Augustsson
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Correspondence to Carita Augustsson.

Appendix: norm calculations

Appendix: norm calculations

The following steps have been modified from (steps 5c and 5d) or added to (step 7) the norm calculations of Cox and Lowe (1996):

(5c) All Na2O is assigned to albite if Na2O < 6 SiO2. Otherwise use all SiO2. In both cases, use Na2O, Al2O3 and SiO2 in the ratio 1:1:6.

(5d) CaO is assigned to anorthite as in the following protocol: if remaining SiO2 > 2 CaO, use all CaO. If SiO2 < 2 Al2O3, use all SiO2. If CaO < Al2O3, use all CaO. If CaO > Al2O3 use all Al2O3. In either case, use CaO, Al2O3 and SiO2 in the ratio 1:1:2.

(7) Conversion to vol% by division of wt% data with mineral density and normalisation to 100%.

(5c) and (5d) were modified due to large resulting deficits in SiO2 and CaO for some of the Patagonian metasediments when Cox and Lowe’s (1996) original recalculation scheme was used. Note that the new scheme can result in a surplus of Na2O. (7) makes a direct comparison of the results with point-count data possible.

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Augustsson, C., Bahlburg, H. Provenance of late Palaeozoic metasediments of the Patagonian proto-Pacific margin (southernmost Chile and Argentina). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 97, 71–88 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-006-0158-7

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