Salta Basin

Salta Basin or Salta Rift Basin is a sedimentary basin located in the Argentine Northwest.[1][2] The basin started to accumulate sediments in the Early Cretaceous (Neocomian) and at present it has sedimentary deposits reaching thicknesses of 5,000 meters. The basin contains seven sub-basins: Tres Cruces, Lomas de Olmedo, Metán, Alemanía, Salfity, El Rey, Sey and Brealito. The basin environment has variously been described as a "foreland rift" and an "intra-continental rift". The basin developed under conditions of extensional tectonics and rift associated volcanism.[1] The basin basement is made of rocks from the Puncoviscana Formation.[2] The volcanism that began in the Late Jurassic was initially of subalkaline character (low sodium and potassium content), but turned increasingly alkaline in the Early Cretaceous.[1]

The rifts of Salta Basin developed in a time of generalized extensional tectonics along western South America.[3] It has been proposed that the Salar de Atacama depression in Chile was once a westward rift arm of the Salta Basin.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Marquillas, Rosa A.; del Papa, Cecilia; Sabino, Ignacio F. (2005). "Sedimentary aspects and paleoenvironmental evolution of a rift basin: Salta Group (Cretaceous–Paleogene), northwestern Argentina" (PDF). International Journal of Earth Sciences. Springer-Verlag. 94: 94–113. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 Grier, M.E.; Salfity, J.A.; Allmendingern, R.W. (1991). "Andean reactivation of the Cretaceous Salta rift, northwestern Argentina" (PDF). Journal of South American Earth Sciences. Pergamon Press. 4 (4): 351–372. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  3. ↑ Ramos, Víctor A (2009). "Anatomy and global context of the Andes: Main geologic features and the Andean orogenic cycle". The Geological Society of America Memoir. 204: 31–65. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  4. ↑ Reutter, Klaus-J.; Charrier, Reynaldo; Götze, Hans-J.; Schurr, Bernd; Wigger, Peter; Scheuber, Ekkehard; Giese, Peter; Reuther, Claus-Dieter; Schmidt, Sabine; Rietbrock, Andreas; Chong, Guillermo; Belmonte-Pool, Arturo (2006). "The Salar de Atacama Basin: a Subsiding Block within the Western Edge of the Altiplano-Puna Plateau". In Oncken, Onno; Chong, Guillermo; Franz, Gerhard; Giese, Peter; Götze, Hans-Jürgen; Ramos, Víctor A.; Strecker, Manfred R.; Wigger, Peter. The Andes: Active Subduction Orogeny. p. 303–325. ISBN 3-540-24329-1.
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