Magallanes Basin
Magallanes or Austral Basin | |
---|---|
Cuenca de Magallanes, Cuenca Austral | |
Coordinates | 53°00′S 69°30′W / 53.000°S 69.500°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, |
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) | |
Lake(s) | Viedma, Cardiel, Argentino, Pueyrredón, |
Geology | |
Basin type | Foreland basin |
Orogeny | Andean |
Age | Jurassic-Holocene |
Stratigraphy | Stratigraphy |
Field(s) | Chilean coal |
The Magallanes Basin[A] or Austral Basin[B] 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 .[4] Three ages of the SALMA classification are defined in the basin; the Early Miocene Santacrucian from the and Friasian from the Río Frías Formation and the Pleistocene Ensenadan from the .
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)
- (Deseadan)
- Late Cretaceous volcanic rock
- Divisadero Group (Aptian to Albian)
- Coihaique Group (Late Jurassic to Aptian)
- Apeleg Formation
- Katterfeld Formation
- Toqui Formation (Tithonian)
Northwestern basin[]
In the Argentinian parts of the basin, the following formations have been registered from north to south:[7]
- (Santacrucian)
- (Santacrucian)
- (Colhuehuapian)
- (Deseadan to Colhuehuapian)
- (Late Eocene to Early Miocene)
- Cardiel Formation (Maastrichtian)
- Mata Amarilla Formation (Albian to Santonian)
- (Albian)
- (Aptian to Cenomanian)
- Apeleg Formation
- (Turonian)
- Divisadero Group (Aptian to Albian)
- Río Belgrano Formation (Barremian to Aptian)
- (Valanginian to Hauterivian)
- El Tranquilo Group (Late Triassic)
- Laguna Colorada Formation (Norian)
South-central basin[]
- (Ensenadan)
- (Santacrucian)
- (Santacrucian)
- (Middle Eocene)
- (Middle Eocene)
- (Early to Late Eocene)
- Chorrillo Formation (Maastrichtian)
- La Irene Formation (Maastrichtian)
- (Maastrichtian)
- Cerro Fortaleza Formation (Cenomanian)
- (Campanian to Maastrichtian)
- (Early to Middle Campanian)
- (Turonian to Santonian)
- (early Hauterivian to early Albian)
- Zapata Formation (Berriasian to Hauterivian)
- (Berriasian to Barremian)
- Tobífera Formation (Late Jurassic)
Tierra del Fuego[]
- Loreto Formation (Priabonian - Divisaderan to Tinguirirican)
- Cerro Colorado Formation
- (Bartonian)
- (Albian)
- (Barremian to Aptian)
- Chon Aike Formation (Middle Jurassic to Berriasian)
See also[]
- Cerro Benitez
- Turbio River
- Golfo San Jorge Basin
- Rocas Verdes ophiolites
Notes[]
References[]
- ^ a b 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
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata. . 2010. Sistemática y bioestratigrafía de los nanofósiles calcáreos del Cretácico del sudeste de la Cuenca Austral, Santa Cruz, Argentina (PhD thesis), 1–450.
- Neogene
- Revisión del género Abderites Ameghino, 1887 (Marsupialia, Paucituberculata). Ameghiniana 49. 164–184. Accessed 2019-02-15. , and . 2012.
- 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. 42–59. Accessed 2019-02-13. , and . 2015.
- 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. . 2014.
- 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. . 2012.
- Sedimentación neógena en la Cuenca del Río Zeballos y del Río Jeinemeni (47° Latitud Sur) Antepaís patagónico Argentina. 34. 139–142. Accessed 2018-09-10. , and . 2003.
- A Peculiar New Pampatheriidae (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Cingulata) from the Pleistocene of Argentina and Comments on Pampatheriidae Diversity. PLoS ONE 10. e0128296. Accessed 2019-02-13. ; ; , and . 2015.
- Los Litopterna (Mammalia) de la Formación Pinturas, Mioceno Temprano-Medio de Patagonia. Ameghiniana 42. 611–625. Accessed 2017-08-15. , and . 2005.
- 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. . 2001.
- Estuary deposits in the Río Baguales Formation (Chattian-Aquitanean), Magallanes Province, Chile. Andean Geology 37. 329–344. Accessed 2017-10-25. ; ; ; ; ; , and . 2010.
- 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. . 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. , and . 1990.
- 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. ; , and . 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. , and . 2009.
- 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. . 1999.
- Systematics and evolutionary significance of the small Abrocomidae from the early Miocene of southern South America. Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology 29. 411–422. Accessed 2019-02-12. ; , and . 2017.
- Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: High-Latitude Paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation, 1–370. Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521194617. Accessed 2017-10-21. ; , and . 2012.
Further reading[]
- , and . 1980. Realms of subsidence. Canadian Society for Petroleum Geology Memoir 6. 9–94.
- Global Basin Classification System. AAPG Bulletin 67. 2175–2193. Accessed 2017-06-23. ; , and . 1983.
- Petroleum Basins - Classifications and Characteristics. Journal of Petroleum Geology 3. 187–207. Accessed 2017-06-23. . 1980.
- Geology of Chile, 1–396. Geological Society of London. Accessed 2018-09-06. ISBN 9781862392199 , and . 2006.
- Sedimentary basins of Argentina
- Sedimentary basins of Chile
- Foreland basins
- Austral or Magallanes Basin