Cuyania

The Precordillera Terrane or Cuyania was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history affected many of the older rocks of Cuyo in Argentina. It was separated by oceanic crust from the Chilenia terrane which accreted into it at ~420-390 Ma when Cuyania was already amalgamated with Gondwana.[1] The hypothesized Mejillonia Terrane in the coast of northern Chile is considered by some geologists to be a single block with Cuyania.

Geology of the Andes
Orogenies
Pampean  Famatinian  Gondwanide  Andean
Fold-thrust belts

Marañón  Central Andean  Patagonian

Batholiths
Antioquia  Cordillera Blanca  Peruvian Coastal  Vicuña Mackenna  Elqui-Limarí  Colangüil  Chilean Coastal  North Patagonian  South Patagonian
Subducted structures

Aluk Plate (formerly)  Antarctic Plate  Carnegie Ridge  Chile Rise  Farallon Plate (formerly)  Juan Fernández Ridge  Nazca Plate  Nazca Ridge

Faults

Dolores-Guayaquil  Cordillera Blanca  Cochabamba  Domeyko  El Tigre  San Ramón  Liquiñe-Ofqui  Magallanes-Fagnano

Andean Volcanic Belt

Northern Zone  Peruvian flat-slab  Central Zone  Pampean flat-slab  Southern Zone  Patagonian Gap  Austral Zone

Terranes

Arequipa-Antofalla  Mejillonia  Chilenia  Chaitenia  Chiloé Block  Cuyania  Pampia  Patagonia  Fitz Roy  Madre de Dios

The San Rafael Block crops out 200 km to the south of the other exposures of Cuyania and is the southern extension of the terrane.[2]

The Precordillera has been hypothesised to have been derived from Laurentia, the core of North America, which was attached to the western margin of South America during the Precambrian when virtually all continents formed a "proto-Gondwana" supercontinent known as Pannotia. The Precordillera was then part of a proposed "Texas Plateau", a promontory attached to Laurentia similar to the way the Falkland Plateau is attached to South America today. The Texas Plateau was detached from the Gondwana in a rift around 455 Ma after which it collided with the proto-Andean margin of South America, an event known as the Taconic-Famatinian orogeny, and the Precordillera got left behind at its present location within South America.[3]

See also

References

Bibliography

  • Cingolani, C.; Heredia, S. (2010). "Field guide on the Ordovician of the Sierra Pintada, San Rafael Block, Mendoza". San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina: Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  • Dalziel, I. W. (1997). "Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic geography and tectonics: Review, hypothesis, environmental speculation". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 109 (1): 16–42. Bibcode:1997GSAB..109...16D. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1997)109<0016:ONPGAT>2.3.CO;2.
  • Rapalini, A. E. (2005). "The accretionary history of southern South America from the latest Proterozoic to the Late Palaeozoic: some palaeomagnetic constraints". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 246 (1): 305–328. Bibcode:2005GSLSP.246..305R. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2005.246.01.12. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  • "The Andes — Tectonic Evolution". Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona. August 2002. Archived from the original on 9 November 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2016.

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