Magallanes Basin
The Magallanes Basin[upper-alpha 1] or Austral Basin[upper-alpha 2] is a major sedimentary basin in southern Patagonia. The basin covers a surface of about 170,000 to 200,000 square kilometres (66,000 to 77,000 sq mi) and has a NNW-SSE oriented shape.[1][2] The basin is bounded to the west by the Andes mountains and is separated from the Malvinas Basin to the east by the Río Chico-Dungeness High.[1] The basin evolved from being an extensional back-arc basin in the Mesozoic to being a compressional foreland basin in the Cenozoic.[3] Rocks within the basin are Jurassic in age and include the Cerro Toro Formation.[4] Three ages of the SALMA classification are defined in the basin; the Early Miocene Santacrucian from the Santa Cruz Formation and Friasian from the Río Frías Formation and the Pleistocene Ensenadan from the La Ensenada Formation.
Magallanes or Austral Basin | |
---|---|
Cuenca de Magallanes, Cuenca Austral | |
Coordinates | 53°00′S 69°30′W |
Etymology | Strait of Magellan Austral = "south" |
Location | Southern South America |
Region | Patagonia |
Country | Argentina Chile |
State(s) | Santa Cruz Province Aysén & Magallanes Regions |
Cities | Punta Arenas Ushuaia |
Characteristics | |
On/Offshore | Both |
Boundaries | Andes, Río Chico-Dungeness High |
Part of | Andean foreland basins |
Area | 170,000–200,000 km2 (66,000–77,000 sq mi) |
Hydrology | |
Sea(s) | Southern Atlantic Ocean |
River(s) | Shehuén River |
Lake(s) | Viedma, Cardiel, Argentino, Pueyrredón, Fontana |
Geology | |
Basin type | Foreland basin |
Orogeny | Andean |
Age | Jurassic-Holocene |
Stratigraphy | Stratigraphy |
Field(s) | Chilean coal |
The Magallanes Basin contains most of Chile's coal reserves dwarfing those found in the Arauco Basin or around Valdivia (e.g. Catamutún, Mulpún). Its coals are lignitic to sub-bituminous.[5]
Stratigraphy
Aysén Basin
The northwesternmost reaches of the basin form a sub-basin known as Aysén Basin or Río Mayo Embayment. From top to bottom the fill the basin is:[6]
- Río Frías Formation (Friasian)
- Río Baguales Formation (Deseadan)
- Late Cretaceous volcanic rock
- Divisadero Group (Aptian to Albian)
- Coihaique Group (Late Jurassic to Aptian)
- Ibáñez Formation
Northwestern basin
In the Argentinian parts of the basin, the following formations have been registered from north to south:[7]
- Santa Cruz Formation (Santacrucian)
- Cerro Boleadoras Formation (Santacrucian)
- Río Jeinemeni Formation (Colhuehuapian)
- Monte León Formation (Deseadan to Colhuehuapian)
- San Julián Formation (Late Eocene to Early Miocene)
- Campo Bola Formation
- Asunción Formation
- Cardiel Formation (Maastrichtian)
- Mata Amarilla Formation (Albian to Santonian)
- Piedra Clavada Formation (Albian)
- Kachaike Formation (Aptian to Cenomanian)
- Río Tarde Formation
- Apeleg Formation
- Cerro Toro Formation (Turonian)
- Divisadero Group (Aptian to Albian)
- Río Belgrano Formation (Barremian to Aptian)
- Springhill Formation (Valanginian to Hauterivian)
- El Tranquilo Group (Late Triassic)
South-central basin
- La Ensenada Formation (Ensenadan)
- Cordillera Chica Formation
- Pinturas Formation (Santacrucian)
- Santa Cruz Formation (Santacrucian)
- Centinela Formation (Middle Eocene)
- Río Leona Formation
- Río Guillero Formation
- Man Aike Formation (Middle Eocene)
- Río Turbio Formation (Early to Late Eocene)
- Calafate Formation
- Cerro Dorotea Formation
- Chorrillo Formation (Maastrichtian)
- La Irene Formation (Maastrichtian)
- Monte Chico Formation (Maastrichtian)
- Cerro Fortaleza Formation (Cenomanian)
- Anita Formation
- Cerro Cazador Formation (Campanian to Maastrichtian)
- Alta Vista Formation (Early to Middle Campanian)
- Lago Sofía Formation
- Cerro Toro Formation (Turonian to Santonian)
- Río Mayer Formation (early Hauterivian to early Albian)
- Zapata Formation (Berriasian to Hauterivian)
- Springhill Formation (Berriasian to Barremian)
- Tobífera Formation (Late Jurassic)
Tierra del Fuego
- Irigoyen Formation
- Punta Basílica Formation
- Castillo Formation
- Loreto Formation (Priabonian - Divisaderan to Tinguirirican)
- Cabo Peña Formation
- Tchat Chii Formation
- Cerro Colorado Formation
- Leticia Formation (Bartonian)
- Punta Torcida Formation
- Arroyo Candelaria Formation
- Río Claro Formation
- Policarpo Formation
- Bahía Thetis Formation
- Cabeza de León Formation
- Arroyo Alfa Formation
- Yahgan Formation
- Beauvoir Formation (Albian)
- Nueva Argentina Formation
- Lemaire Formation
- Pampa Rincón Formation (Barremian to Aptian)
- Chon Aike Formation (Middle Jurassic to Berriasian)
Notes
- Chiefly used in Chile
- Mainly used in Argentina
References
- Gallardo, Rocío E. (2014). "Seismic sequence stratigraphy of a foreland unit inthe [sic] Magallanes-Austral Basin, Dorado Riquelme Block, Chile: Implications for deep-marine reservoirs". Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis (in Spanish). 1221 (1). Retrieved 7 December 2015.
- "Cuenca Austral". Secretaría de Energía (in Spanish). Government of Argentina. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
De una superficie total de 170.000 Km2, unos 23.000 Km2 pertenecen al área costa afuera.
- Wilson, T.J. (1991). "Transition from back-arc to foreland basin development in the southernmost Andes: Stratigraphic record from the Ultima Esperanza District, Chile". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 103 (1): 98–111. Bibcode:1991GSAB..103...98W. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1991)103<0098:tfbatf>2.3.co;2.
- Fosdick, Julie C. (2007). Late Miocene Exhumation of the Magallanes Basin and sub-Andean fold belt, southern Chile: New constrains from apatite U-Th/He thermochronology. Geological Society of America, Denver Annual Meeting (28–31 October 2007) Paper No. 123-15. Denver.
- Hackley, Paul C.; Warwick, Peter D.; Alfaro, Guillermo H.; Cuebas, Rosenelsy M. (2006). "World Coal Quality Inventory: Chile" (PDF). World Coal Quality Inventory: South America (Report). USGS. pp. 90–131. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
- Demant, A.; Suárez, M.; de la Cruz, R.; Bruguier, O (2010). "Early Cretaceous Surtseyan volcanoes of the Baño Nuevo Volcanic Complex (Aysén Basin, Eastern Central Patagonian Cordillera, Chile)". Geologica Acta. 8 (2): 207–219. doi:10.1344/105.000001530.
- Pérez Panera, 2010, p.52
Bibliography
- Cretaceous
- Pérez Panera, Juan Pablo. 2010. Sistemática y bioestratigrafía de los nanofósiles calcáreos del Cretácico del sudeste de la Cuenca Austral, Santa Cruz, Argentina (PhD thesis), 1–450. Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
- Neogene
- Abello, María Alejandra, and David Rubilar Rogers. 2012. Revisión del género Abderites Ameghino, 1887 (Marsupialia, Paucituberculata). Ameghiniana 49(2). 164–184. Accessed 2019-02-15.
- Arnal, M., and M.G. Vucetich. 2015. Revision of the fossil rodent Acaremys Ameghino, 1887 (Hystricognathi, Octodontoidea, Acaremyidae) from the Miocene of Patagonia (Argentina) and the description of a new acaremyid. Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology 27(1). 42–59. Accessed 2019-02-13.
- Bellosi, Eduardo S. et al. 2014. Ambientes asociados a la fauna Friasense (Mioceno Medio) en Alto río Cisnes (Aysén, Chile), 40–41. XIV Reuñión Argentina de Sedimentología. Accessed 2018-09-10.
- Bostelmann, J.E. et al. 2012. The Alto Río Cisnes Fossil Fauna (Río Frías Formation, Early-Middle Miocene, Friasian SALMA): A keystone and paradigmatic vertebrate assemblage of the South American Fossil Record, 44–45. III Simposio Paleontología en Chile. Accessed 2018-09-10.
- Dal Molín, C.N., and F. Colombo. 2003. Sedimentación neógena en la Cuenca del Río Zeballos y del Río Jeinemeni (47° Latitud Sur) Antepaís patagónico Argentina. Geogaceta 34. 139–142. Accessed 2018-09-10.
- Góis, Flávio; Laureano Raúl González Ruiz; Gustavo Juan Scillato Yané, and Esteban Soibelzon. 2015. A Peculiar New Pampatheriidae (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Cingulata) from the Pleistocene of Argentina and Comments on Pampatheriidae Diversity. PLoS ONE 10(6). e0128296. Accessed 2019-02-13.
- Kramarz, Alejandro G., and Mariano Bond. 2005. Los Litopterna (Mammalia) de la Formación Pinturas, Mioceno Temprano-Medio de Patagonia. Ameghiniana 42. 611–625. Accessed 2017-08-15.
- Kramarz, Alejandro G. 2001. Estudio de la fauna de roedores de la Formación Pinturas, Mioceno medio inferior de la Provincia de Santa Cruz (PhD thesis), 1–300. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Accessed 2017-08-15.
- Le Roux, Jacobus P.; Jacqueline Puratich; F. Amaro Mourgues; José Luis Oyarzún; Rodrigo A. Otero; Teresa Torres, and Francisco Hervé. 2010. Estuary deposits in the Río Baguales Formation (Chattian-Aquitanean), Magallanes Province, Chile. Andean Geology 37. 329–344. Accessed 2017-10-25.
- Marshall, Larry G.. 1990. Fossil Marsupialia from the type Friasian land mammal age (Miocene), Alto Río Cisnes, Aisén, Chile. Revista Geológica de Chile 17. 19–55. Accessed 2017-10-21.
- Marshall, Larry G., and Patricia Salinas. 1990. Stratigraphy of the Río Frías Formation (Miocene) along the Alto Río Cisnes, Aisén, Chile. Revista Geológica de Chile 17. 57–87. Accessed 2017-10-21.
- Náñez, Carolina; Mirta E. Quattrocchio, and Liliana Ruiz. 2009. Palinología y micropaleontología de las Formaciones San Julián y Monte León (Oligoceno - Mioceno temprano) en el subsuelo de cabo Curioso, provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina. Ameghiniana 46. 669–693. Accessed 2017-08-15.
- Picasso, Mariana B.J., and Federico J. Degrange. 2009. El género Nothura (Aves, Tinamidae) en el Pleistoceno (Formación Ensenada) de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas 26. 428–432. Accessed 2018-09-10.
- Tonni, E.P. et al. 1999. The Ensenada and Buenos Aires formations (Pleistocene) in a quarry near La Plata, Argentina. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 12. 273–291. Accessed 2018-09-10.
- Verzi, Diego H.; A. Itatí Olivares, and Cecilia C. Morgan. 2017. Systematics and evolutionary significance of the small Abrocomidae from the early Miocene of southern South America. Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology 29(3). 411–422. Accessed 2019-02-12.
- Vizcaíno, Sergio F.; Richard F. Kay, and Susana Bargo. 2012. Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: High-Latitude Paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation, 1–370. Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521194617. Accessed 2017-10-21.
Further reading
- Bally, A.W., and S. Snelson. 1980. Realms of subsidence. Canadian Society for Petroleum Geology Memoir 6. 9–94. .
- Kingston, D.R.; C.P. Dishroon, and P.A. Williams. 1983. Global Basin Classification System. AAPG Bulletin 67. 2175–2193. Accessed 2017-06-23.
- Klemme, H.D. 1980. Petroleum Basins - Classifications and Characteristics. Journal of Petroleum Geology 3. 187–207. Accessed 2017-06-23.
- Moreno, Teresa, and Wes Gibbons. 2006. Geology of Chile, 1–396. Geological Society of London. Accessed 2018-09-06. ISBN 9781862392199