Short note. A new U-PB age for the Talampaya Formation: Stratigraphic and paleoclimatic implications

Abstract

This paper presents a new U–Pb zircon age of 253.40 ± 1.06 Ma for the middle part of the Talampaya Formation, which is consistent with the previously reported dating of 252.38 ± 0.22 Ma at the top of the unit. The age herein presented was obtained from a tuff level intercalated into a fluvial sequence formed by finning-up cycles of massive conglomerates, cross-bedded sandstones, and laminated sandy mudstones interpreted as deposited by sandy meandering rivers with dominant sandy floodplains. In this context, a vitric tuff from a floodplain located 140 m from the base of the unit provided the zircons dated by the combination of LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation – Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry). The radiometric age of 253.40 ± 1.06 Ma confirms the relocation of the Talampaya Formation in the Late Permian and demonstrates that at least the upper half and probably the whole of this unit was deposited during the Lopingian, a time interval scarcely represented in South America. This assumption is consistent with the age of 249.66 ± 0.11 Ma (early Triassic) reported in the overlying La Veteada Formation. The new age presented has paleoclimatic implications regarding the worldwide climatic aridification event that occurred at the end of the Late Paleozoic since it gives a relatively precise approximation to the onset of the aridization in this part of Gondwana during the Lopingian (circa 252.38 Ma).