basement faulting and inversion of the nw …（基底断裂和反演的西北u2026）.pdf

Third ISAG, SI Malo (France), 17-19/9/1996 BASEMENT FAULTING AND INVERSION OF THE NW NEUQUEN BASIN, ARGENTINA. Jacqueline L.M.Booth and Mike P.Coward Department of Geology, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BP, England. KEYWORDS :Inversion, Backthrusting, Los Molles Formation, Corllera del Viento. INTRODUCTION. The NeuquCn Basin lies to the immeate east of the Andean Corllera in Argentina, between the latitudes of 35 and 41s. It formed as a back-arc extensional basin during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, open to the Pacific at its northwestern margin. The Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary infill reaches a thickness of 7km (Vergani et al., 1995), a lengthy period of thermal subsidence (Aalenian to Albian) succeeding the initial rifting (Norian to Toarcian). Inversion of the generally north-south trending normal faults in the western half of the basin began in the Eocene, uplifting several sizable basement blocks above surface level. One of the largest of these blocks is the Cordillera del Viento in the northernmost part of NeuquCn Province. The results of field studies, the analysis of seismic lines and Landsat TM images, and palaeomagnetic data from around this range and to the north in Mendoza Province will be presented here. STRATIGRAPHY Recent works on the stratigraphy have analyzed it using sequence stratigraphic visions (e.g. Legarreta and Gulisano, 1989). The Jurassic to Early Tertiary succession can be separated into ten mesosequences, the first two of whch make up the Norian to Toarcian synrift, lying on a basement of Carboniferous to mid-Triassic volcanics (Choiyoi) and clastics. The mesosequences begin with a