Isotopic studies on detrital zircons of Silurian–Devonian siliciclastic sequences from Argentinean North Patagonia and Sierra de la Ventana regions: comparative provenance

Abstract

The Silurian–Devonian siliciclastic sedimentary units known as Sierra Grande Formation and the upper part of the Ventana Group crop out in the eastern area of the North Patagonian Massif and in the Ventania system, toward the Atlantic border of Argentina. Both sequences show similar stratigraphical characteristics and were deposited in a shallow marine platform paleoenvironment. Previous contributions have provided evidence of an allochthonous Patagonia terrane that amalgamate to Gondwana during the Permian–Triassic. However, other lines of research support a crustal continuity southward, where the Pampean and Famatinian events extend into the northern Patagonia. In either case, the detrital input to the Eo–Mesopaleozoic basins generated along the passive margin tectonic setting should reflect the sedimentary sources. In this contribution, new age data on the sedimentary provenance of these units is provided by U–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopic studies on detrital zircons, using LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP methodologies. The main sedimentary sources of detrital zircons for both regions are of Cambrian–Ordovician and Neoproterozoic age, while a secondary mode is Mesoproterozoic. Zircons from older cratonic sources (Mesoarchean–Paleoproterozoic ages) are scarcely recorded. The sample from the upper section of the Devonian Lolen Formation (Ventana Group) shows an important change in the sedimentary provenance, with a main mode of Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons. Detrital source areas considering the orogenic cycles known for southwest South America (Famatinian, Pampean–Brasiliano, Mesoproterozoic–‘Grenvillian’ and Paleoproterozoic–‘Transamazonian’) are proposed.