Cuyo Basin

Cuyo Basin
Cuyo Basin
Cuenca Cuyana
	Location of the basin in Argentina
Coordinates	34°15′S 68°34′W / 34.250°S 68.567°W
Etymology
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)
Geology
Basin type	Foreland basin
Plate	South American
Orogeny	Andean
Age	Triassic-Pliocene
Stratigraphy	Stratigraphy
Field(s)

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					^[4]
Mio-Pliocene Huayquerian		Huayquerías	Mudstones, sandstones, tuff	Fluvial	^[5]
Miocene				Alluvial	^[6]
Miocene			Shales and sandstones	Alluvial	^[6]
Middle Miocene Laventan			Sandstones	Alluvial and eolian	^[6]
Late Oligocene Deseadan			Sandstones	Alluvial and eolian	^[6]
Early Oligocene	Hiatus				^[6]
Priabonian	Hiatus				^[6]
Bartonian Divisaderan				Fluvial	^[6]
Lutetian				Fluvial	^[6]
Early Eocene	Hiatus				^[6]
Paleocene
Late Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous			Basalts	Volcanic	^[6]
Late Jurassic			Basalts	Volcanic	^[6]
Late Jurassic			Sandstones and conglomerates	Alluvial to fluvial	^[6]
Rhaetian				Fluvial-deltaic	^[6]^[3]
Norian				Fluvial-deltaic	^[6]^[3]
Carnian			Black shales	Lacustrine	^[6]^[7]
Carnian			Tuffs, conglomerates, sandstones, shales	Alluvial to fluvial	^[6]^[7]^[8]
Ladinian			Mudstones and conglomerates		^[6]^[7]
Anisian			Mudstones and conglomerates		^[6]^[7]
Olenekian			Volcaniclastic conglomerates		^[6]^[7]
Induan			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[]

^ ^a ^b "Cuenca Cuyana". Secretaría de Energía (in Spanish). Government of Argentina. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
^ Zencich et al., 2008, p.110
^ ^a ^b ^c Spalletti et al., 2008, p.270
^ Yrigoyen, 1993
^ Garrido et al, 2017, p.51
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Zencich et al., 2008, p.112
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Spalletti et al., 2008, p.269
^ Spalletti et al., 2005
^ ^a ^b Finney, 2007
^ ^a ^b Keller et al., 1998

Bibliography[]

General

Spalletti, L.A.; C.M. Fanning, and C.W. Rapela. 2008. Dating the Triassic continental rift in the southern Andes: the Potrerillos Formation, Cuyo Basin, Argentina. Geologica Acta 6. 267–283. Accessed 2020-07-14.
Zencich, Silvia; Héctor J. Villar, and Daniel Boggetti. 2008. Sistema petrolero Cacheuta-Barrancas de la Cuenca Cuyana, Provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, 109–134. . Accessed 2017-08-21.
Finney, S.C. 2007. The parautochthonous Gonwanan origin of the Cuyania (greater Precordillera) terrane of Argentina: A re-evaluation of evidence used to support an allochthonous Laurentian origin. Geologica Acta 5. 127–158. Accessed 2020-07-14.
Spalletti, L.; E. Morel; A. Artabe; A. Zavattieri, and D. Ganuza. 2005. Stratigraphy, sedimentary facies and palaeoflora of the Potrerillos Triassic succession, Mendoza, Republic of Argentina. Revista Geológica de Chile 32. 249–272. Accessed 2020-07-14.
Keller, M.; W. Buggisch, and O. Lehnert. 1998. The stratigraphical record of the Argentine Precordillera and its plate-tectonic background. The Proto-Andean Margin of Gondwana. 142. 35–56. Accessed 2020-07-14.
Yrigoyen, Marcelo R. 1993. Revisión estratigráfica del Neogeno de las Huayquerías de Mendoza septentrional, Argentina. Ameghiniana 31. 125–138. Accessed 2019-03-08.

Divisadero Largo Formation

Simpson, G.G.; J.L. Minoprio, and B. Patterson. 1962. The mammalian fauna of the Divisadero Largo Formation, Mendoza, Argentina. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 127. 239–293. Accessed 2019-02-15.

Huayquerías Formation

Forasiepi, Analía M.; Ross D.E. MacPhee; Santiago Hernández del Pino; Gabriela I. Schmidt; Eli Amson, and Camille Grohé. 2016. Exceptional skull of Huayqueriana (Mammalia, Litopterna, Macraucheniidae) from the Late Miocene of Argentina: anatomy, systematics and paleobiological implications. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 404. 1–76. Accessed 2018-10-01.
Garrido, Alberto C.; Ricardo Bonini, and David L. Barbeau. 2017. Paleoambiente, edad y vertebrados de la Formación Huayquerías, Mioceno tardio, Provincia de Mendoza, Republica Argentina, 50–55. XX Congreso Geológico Argentino. Accessed 2018-09-10.

Mariño Formation

Cerdeño, Esperanza; Bárbara Vera, and Ana María Combina. 2018. A new early Miocene Mesotheriidae (Notoungulata) from the Mariño Formation (Argentina): Taxonomic and biostratigraphic implications. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 88. 118–131. Accessed 2019-02-11.
Cerdeño, Esperanza, and M. Guiomar Vucetich. 2007. The first rodent from the Mariño Formation (Miocene) at Divisadero Largo (Mendoza, Argentina) and its biochronological implications. Andean Geology 34. 199–207. Accessed 2017-10-23.