Collón Curá Formation
Collón Curá Formation Stratigraphic range: Langhian-earliest Tortonian (typically Colloncuran) ~ | |
---|---|
Type | Geological formation |
Sub-units | Tobaceo Las Bayas & Pilcaniyeú Ignimbrite Members |
Underlies | & (Neuquén Basin) , & alluvium (Cañadón Asfalto Basin) |
Overlies | , Huitrera & , crystalline basement (Neuquén Basin) , Lefipán & (Cañadón Asfalto Basin) |
Thickness | Up to 300 m (980 ft) |
Lithology | |
Primary | Tuff, sandstone |
Other | Siltstone, marl, limestone, calcareous concretions, pumice |
Location | |
Coordinates | 40°00′S 70°48′W / 40.0°S 70.8°WCoordinates: 40°00′S 70°48′W / 40.0°S 70.8°W |
Approximate paleocoordinates | 40°36′N 66°24′W / 40.6°N 66.4°W |
Region | Neuquén, Río Negro & Chubut Provinces |
Country | Argentina |
Extent | Cañadón Asfalto & Neuquén Basins |
Type section | |
Named for | Collón Curá River & Estancia Collón Curá |
Named by | Yrigoyen |
Location | Lácar Department |
Year defined | 1969 |
Coordinates | 40°04′56.6″S 70°51′55.3″W / 40.082389°S 70.865361°W |
Region | Neuquén Province |
Country | Argentina |
Thickness at type section | 50 m (160 ft) |
Outcrop locations of the Collón Curá Formation |
The Collón Curá Formation (Spanish: Formación Collón Curá) is a Middle Miocene geological formation of the southern Neuquén Basin in northwestern Patagonia and the western Cañadón Asfalto Basin of central Patagonia, Argentina. The formation crops out from the southern Neuquén Province, the western Río Negro Province to the northern Chubut Province.
The formation, with a maximum thickness of 300 metres (980 ft), comprises tuffs and sandstones with minor siltstones, marls and limestones, deposited in a fluvial, deltaic and shallow to deep lacustrine environment in small basins separated by faults. The formation dates from the Langhian to earliest Tortonian epochs of the Middle to Late Miocene, typically Colloncuran.
The Collón Curá Formation is named after Estancia Collón Curá (1 on the map in the infobox) along the Collón Curá River (2), a tributary of the Limay River in the Río Negro watershed, and lends its name to the Colloncuran, one of the South American land mammal ages. The formation has provided many fossils of mammals, reptiles, among others the snake Waincophis australis, and the largest terror bird Kelenken guillermoi. The rodent and the typothere Protypotherium colloncurensis were named after the formation.
Description[]
The strata of the Collón Curá Formation were first recognized by Roth in 1899, based on a 50 metres (160 ft) thick succession of grey tuffs in the valley of the Collón Curá River. In 1929, Groeber named the unit Colloncurense, separating the sediments from the older , that Roth had grouped in the same unit. Yrigoyen in 1969 formally defined the stratigraphic unit as Collón Curá Formation. The type section of the formation is on both sides on the Collón Curá River. The maximum recorded thickness in the Collón Curá river valley is 130 metres (430 ft).[1]
In the of the Neuquén Basin, the formation is unconformably overlain by the ,[2] while basaltic lava flows[3] of the ,[4] and Quaternary alluvium overly the Collón Curá Formation in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin.[5][6] In the Collón Curá valley, the formation covers Paleogene sediments of the Huitrera and and in places overlying crystalline basement.[1] In other parts of the Neuquén Basin, the formation overlies the Early Miocene or the Late Cretaceous Angostura Colorada Formation.[7][8] In the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, the Collón Curá Formation overlies the ,[9] and in the area around the Chico River in the same basin, the formation overlies the . In this location, the Collón Curá Formation is unconformably overlain by the .[10]
The oldest age for the formation has been given as 16.1 Ma,[11] and the top of the formation has been dated to 11 ± 1, and more precisely to 10.7 Ma.[1] 40Ar/39Ar analysis on amphibole crystals, collected from fresh pumice clasts, revealed an age of 14.86 ± 0.13 Ma for the middle section of the Collón Curá Formation in the Gastre Sub-basin of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin.[12] Earlier estimates based on K/Ar dating on biotite minerals of the Pilcaniyeú Ignimbrite Member were given as 15 Ma (1980) and 14.1 Ma (1990). Overall, the age of the formation ranges from Langhian to earliest Tortonian.[13]
Lithologies[]
In its type locality, the Collón Curá Formation is characterized by homogeneous greyish-yellow well-consolidated massive vitrocrystalline tuffs without visible sedimentary structures, but with calcareous concretions. The tuffaceous sediments contain pieces of white pumice with a vesicular character up to 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in size. The volcanic crystals in the tuff comprise andesine, hornblende and hypersthene in an argillaceous matrix. The concretions in the formation can reach up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in size and result from secondary diagenesis replacing the primary porosity of the sediments.[1]
Around the Río Chico in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, the formation is about 300 metres (980 ft) thick and comprises siltstones, sandstones, marls and limestones.[10]
Depositional environment[]
The formation was deposited in a fluvial and lacustrine environment dominated by pyroclastic flows in small basins, separated by faults.[14] The sub-Andean region of Argentina went through a phase of marine transgression during the Middle Miocene, approximately 15 to 13 Ma.[15] The Collón Curá Formation shows growth strata in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, indicating syn-tectonic deposition.[3] In this basin, the formation ranges from a shallow lacustrine setting in the basal section, a deep lacustrine system with deltaic facies in the middle and upper parts.[10] The Collón Curá Formation is correlated with the contemporaneous fluvial and lacustrine tuffaceous of the central Neuquén Basin.[16]
The Collón Curá Formation, together with the underlying in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, was deposited in a fragmented, possibly by pull-apart tectonic activity,[17] foreland basin setting.[18]
The climate in the early middle Miocene was hot, a period known as the . This thermal maximum was followed by a period of cooling, the Middle Miocene disruption, probably related to glacial growth and the reestablishment of the ice of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are estimated to have dropped from about 300 to 140 ppm.[19]
Paleontological significance[]
The mammal fauna of the Collón Curá Formation led researchers to establish the Colloncuran age in the SALMA classification, ranging from 15.5 to 13.8 Ma. This age, used in South America as subdivision for the Cenozoic, follows on the Friasian age, defined from the Chilean Río Frías Formation of the Aysén Basin and precedes the Laventan age, named after the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte La Venta pertaining to the Honda Group of the of central Colombia.
The rodent , and the typothere Protypotherium colloncurensis were named after the formation.[20]
The fossil mammal assemblage of the Collón Curá Formation represents a fauna preceding the evolution of the Caviidae. The oldest true caviid, is known from the Villavieja and La Victoria Formations of La Venta, Colombia. Sister taxa of these caviids first appeared in the Colloncuran; Guiomys unica and , found in the Collón Curá Formation.[21] In alternative classification proposed in 2012 by Pérez and Pol, Guiomys is considered an optional early caviid, pushing back the lineage to the Colloncuran.[22]
Fossil content[]
Group | Fossils | Images | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Typotheria | Protypotherium colloncurensis | ||
Protypotherium endiadys | |||
, Interatherium sp. | |||
Primates | , Cebidae indet. | ||
Rodents | , Guiomys unica, , , , , , , , , , , Dasyproctidae indet., Echimyidae indet., Eocardiidae indet., Erethizontidae indet. | ||
Hegetotheria | Hegetotherium sp., Pachyrukhos sp. | ||
Sparassodonta | Patagosmilus goini, | ||
Litopterna | Theosodon sp. | ||
Cingulata | |||
, Peltephilus pumilus, , , | |||
Pilosa | ?Neotamandua australis | ||
Paucituberculata | |||
Birds | Kelenken guillermoi | ||
Reptiles | , Waincophis australis, Boinae indet., Lacertilia indet. |
See also[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Collón Curá Formation. |
- South American land mammal ages
- Cucaracha Formation of the Canal Zone, Panama
- Castilletes Formation of the Cocinetas Basin in northern Colombia
- Viche Formation of northern Ecuador
- Pebas Formation of the Amazon Basin
- Pisco Formation of the Pisco Basin in southern Peru
- Cura-Mallín Group of the western Neuquén Basin
References[]
- ^ a b c d Escosteguy & Franchi, 2010, p.422
- ^ Escosteguy & Franchi, 2010, p.418
- ^ a b Echaurren et al., 2016, p.103
- ^ Echaurren et al., 2016, p.102
- ^ Echaurren et al., 2016, p.105
- ^ Echaurren, 2017, p.102
- ^ Geologic Map, 2007, p.112
- ^ Prez & Massaferro, 2013, p.223
- ^ Echaurren, 2017, p.96
- ^ a b c d Río Chico Colloncuran at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Di Pietro, 2016, p.47
- ^ a b Estancia Collón Cura at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Escosteguy & Franchi, 2010, p.423
- ^ Figari et al., 2015, p.154
- ^ Náñez & Malumián, 2019, p.193
- ^ Geologic Map, 2007, p.49
- ^ Dalla Salda & Franzese, 1987, p.11
- ^ Echaurren, 2017, p.97
- ^ Pearson & Palmer, 2000, p.699
- ^ a b Vera et al., 2017, p.855
- ^ a b Pérez & Pol, 2012, p.6
- ^ Pérez & Pol, 2012, p.12
- ^ a b c d e f g Pilcaniyeu Viejo at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Vera et al., 2017, p.848
- ^ Chico River at Fossilworks.org
- ^ a b c Cañadon del Tordillo at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Collón Cura River at Fossilworks.org
- ^ a b c d Bondesio et al., 1980
- ^ a b c d Estancia Campionario at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Kay et al., 1998
- ^ Silvestro et al., 2017, p.14
- ^ a b c d Pardiñas, 1991
- ^ a b RCH 018S at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Vucetich & Kramarz, 2003
- ^ Pérez, 2010
- ^ Pérez & Vucetich, 2011
- ^ Forasiepi & Carlini, 2010
- ^ González Ruiz et al., 2011, p.569
- ^ González Ruiz et al., 2013, p.323
- ^ a b c Comallo at Fossilworks.org
- ^ Abello & Rubilar, 2012, p.180
- ^ Bertelli et al., 2007
- ^ Albino, 1996
Bibliography[]
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- Geology
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- Evolución tectónica del sistema orogénico Andino en la Patagonia norte (42-44° S) (PhD thesis), 1–170. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Accessed 2019-02-27. . 2017.
- Tectonic evolution of the North Patagonian Andes (41°–44° S) through recognition of syntectonic strata. Tectonophysics 677–678. 99–114. Accessed 2019-02-27. ; ; ; ; ; ; , and . 2016.
- Estratigrafía de la región de Chapelco, Provincia del Neuquén. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina 66. 418–429. Accessed 2019-02-27. , and . 2010.
- Foraminíferos miocenos en la cuenca Neuquina, Argentina: implicancias estratigráficas y paleoambientales. Andean Geology 46. 183–210. Accessed 2019-02-27. , and . 2019.
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 60 million years. Nature 406. 695–699. Accessed 2019-02-27. , and . 2000.
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- Geología y geomorfología del tramo superior del Arroyo Comallo, Río Negro. Contribuciones Científicas GÆA 26. 221–234. Accessed 2018-09-08. , and . 2013.
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- Geologic formations of Argentina
- Colloncuran
- Langhian
- Serravallian
- Tortonian
- Miocene Series of South America
- Neogene Argentina
- Tuff formations
- Sandstone formations
- Fluvial deposits
- Lacustrine deposits
- Deltaic deposits
- Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of South America
- Paleontology in Argentina
- Cañadón Asfalto Basin
- Neuquén Basin
- Geology of Chubut Province
- Geology of Neuquén Province
- Geology of Río Negro Province
- Geology of Patagonia
- Mapuche language