Cuyo Basin

Cuyo Basin
	Cuenca Cuyana
	Location of the basin in Argentina
Coordinates	34°15′S 68°34′W
Etymology	Cuyo River
Country	Argentina
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

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]

Description

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]

Stratigraphy

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		Mariño	Sandstones	Alluvial and eolian	[6]
Early Oligocene	Hiatus				[6]
Priabonian	Hiatus				[6]
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		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		Río Blanco		Fluvial-deltaic	[6][3]
Carnian		Cacheuta	Black shales	Lacustrine	[6][7]
Carnian		Potrerillos	Tuffs, conglomerates, sandstones, shales	Alluvial to fluvial	[6][7][8]
Ladinian		Cerro de las Cabras	Mudstones and conglomerates		[6][7]
Anisian		Cerro de las Cabras	Mudstones and conglomerates		[6][7]
Olenekian		Río Mendoza	Volcaniclastic conglomerates		[6][7]
Induan		Río Mendoza	Volcaniclastic conglomerates		[6][7]
Late Permian	Choiyoi Group				[3]
Carboniferous	Hiatus				[9][10]
Devonian	Hiatus				[9][10]
Early Paleozoic	Cuyania				[9][10]

Notes and references

Notes

These tectonics are not related to the break-up of Gondwana later in the Mesozoic.[3]

References

"Cuenca Cuyana". Secretaría de Energía (in Spanish). Government of Argentina. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
Zencich et al., 2008, p.110
Spalletti et al., 2008, p.270
Yrigoyen, 1993
Garrido et al, 2017, p.51
Zencich et al., 2008, p.112
Spalletti et al., 2008, p.269
Spalletti et al., 2005
Finney, 2007
Keller et al., 1998