Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (6) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by DeCelles, P.G. Articles by Gehrels, G.E. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Detrital zircon U-Pb ages provide provenance and chronostratigraphic information from Eocene synorogenic deposits in northwestern Argentina

¹ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
² Universität Potsdam, Institut für Geowissenschaften, 14476 Golm, Germany
³ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA

Paleogene clastic sedimentary rocks in the Puna plateau of northwestern Argentina contain valuable information about the timing and location of early mountain building in the central Andes. Because these rocks generally lack tuffaceous facies, only paleontological ages have been available. We present U-Pb ages from detrital zircons in the conglomeratic Eocene Geste Formation of the central Puna plateau. The zircon ages indicate that the Geste Formation was derived from nearby high-relief ranges composed of Ordovician metasedimentary rocks. A small population of ca. 37–35 Ma grains also confirms the late Eocene stratigraphic age of the Geste Formation, and suggests that U-Pb detrital zircon ages may provide a new tool for determining depositional ages and provenance of widespread Paleogene deposits in the central Andes.

Key Words: Andes • Argentina • syntectonic sedimentation • U-Pb geochronology

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Carrapa, P.G. DeCelles, P.W. Reiners, G.E. Gehrels, and M. Sudo Apatite triple dating and white mica 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology of syntectonic detritus in the Central Andes: A multiphase tectonothermal history Geology, May 1, 2009; 37(5): 407 - 410. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. F. Lawton, I. A. Bradford, F. J. Vega, G. E. Gehrels, and J. M. Amato Provenance of Upper Cretaceous-Paleogene sandstones in the foreland basin system of the Sierra Madre Oriental, northeastern Mexico, and its bearing on fluvial dispersal systems of the Mexican Laramide Province Geological Society of America Bulletin, May 1, 2009; 121(5-6): 820 - 836. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]