Magmatism coeval with lower Paleozoic shelf basins in NW-Argentina (Tastil batholith): Constraints on current stratigraphic and tectonic interpretations

Abstract

The Tastil batholith (Eastern Cordillera, NW Argentina) holds relevant keys for interpreting the tectonic evolution of the Central Andes basement since it has always been interpreted as the subcrop of the Cambrian and Lower Ordovician basins in the Eastern Cordillera. However, in the Angosto de la Quesera section, the batholith intrudes sandstones underlying a fossiliferous Lower Tremadocian conglomerate containing Tastil granite pebbles. The precise assignation of the sandstones intruded by the granite to Cambrian Mesón Group or to the Uppermost Cambrian–Lower Tremadocian Santa Victoria Group is a key for refining the relationships between magmatic and sedimentary units. The ages of 526 Ma and 517 Ma (U/Pb, zircons) obtained from two facies of the batholith are coherent with the proposal of including these sandstones in the Mesón Group. However, the lithologic features and fossil content point to an affinity with the basal units of the Santa Victoria Group according to sedimentologic and stratigraphic studies ruled out by other authors. The intrusive relationships between the Tastil batholith and the Lower Paleozoic sandstones indicates the batholith is coeval with the Mesón and/or Santa Victoria groups basins instead of being its subcrop, which strongly contradicts previous proposals about basement evolution along the Lower Paleozoic margin of Gondwana. Therefore, the genesis and emplacement of the Tastil batholith must be related to the development of the Lower Paleozoic shelf basins rather than with the final stages of Puncoviscana-type basin evolution. The basement of central and northern Argentina records a wide spectrum of sedimentary, deformational, magmatic and metamorphic processes at a variety of crust levels during the Early Paleozoic. Tastil batholith emplacement and exhumation in the Eastern Cordillera represent shallower crustal expressions of the plutonic and high-T–low-P metamorphic events at deeper levels in the basement now exposed mainly in eastern Puna and Pampean Ranges.