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U-Pb Zircon Constraints on the Age and Provenance of the Rocas Verdes Basin Fill, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

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Article

Abstract

The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Rocas Verdes basin constitutes one of the most poorly understood components of the southernmost Andes. As a result, accurate reconstructions and interpretations of deformation associated with the Andean orogeny and the kinematics of Scotia arc development also remain poorly constrained. In this data brief, we report U-Pb zircon ages from sandstones of the Rocas Verdes basin fill and from a crosscutting pluton in the southernmost Andes of Argentine Tierra del Fuego. Detrital samples contain predominant Early to early Middle Cretaceous (circa 130–105 Ma) U-Pb zircon age populations, with very small or single-grain middle Mesozoic and Proterozoic subpopulations. A very small subpopulation of Late Cretaceous ages in one sample raises the unlikely possibility that parts of the Rocas Verdes basin are younger than perceived. A sample from a crosscutting syenitic pegmatite yields a crystallization age of 74.7 +2.2/-2.0 Ma. The data presented herein encourage further geochronologic evaluation of the Rocas Verdes basin in order to better constrain the depositional ages and provenance of its contents.

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Barbeau Jr., D. L., Gombosi, D. J., Zahid, K. M., Bizimis, M., Swanson-Hysell, N., Valencia, V., & Gehrels, G. E. (2009). U-Pb zircon constraints on the age and provenance of the Rocas Verdes basin fill, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 10 (12), 1-11.

© Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 2009, American Geophysical Union

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