Ordovician collision of the Argentine Precordillera with Gondwana, independent of Laurentian Taconic orogeny

Abstract

The Argentine Precordillera, a rifted fragment of Laurentian crust and sedimentary cover, collided with Gondwana in Middle Ordovician time; the time of collision (Ocloyic orogeny) is similar to that of the Taconic orogeny of eastern Laurentia. Three hypotheses have been proposed to explain Ordovician docking of the Precordillera with western Gondwana: (A) the Precordillera microcontinent was rifted from Laurentia in Cambrian time and, following solitary drift, collided with Gondwana, independent of the Laurentian Taconic orogeny; (B) a continent–continent collision of Laurentia with Gondwana, producing a continuous Taconic–Ocloyic orogenic belt, was followed by rifting that left the Precordillera attached to Gondwana; and (C) the Precordillera at the tip of a distal plateau on greatly stretched Laurentian crust collided with Gondwana and subsequently separated from Laurentia.Contrasts in several aspects of Taconic and Ocloyic orogenic history provide for discrimination between the microcontinent and continent–continent-collision hypotheses. Stratigraphic gradients and lithologic assemblages within the synorogenic clastic wedges are incompatible with a single continuous orogenic belt, which, in palinspastic location, places the thin, fine-grained southern fringe of the Taconic clastic wedge adjacent to the thickest and coarsest part of the Ocloyic clastic wedge. Separate temporal and spatial distribution patterns of volcanic ash (bentonite) beds in Laurentia and the Precordillera indicate originally separate dispersal systems. Late Ordovician Hirnantian Gondwanan glacial deposits in the Precordillera indicate substantial latitudinal separation from Laurentia. Post-collision faults with large vertical separation in the Precordillera have no coeval counterparts on the Laurentian foreland. These contrasts indicate originally separate (not initially continuous, and subsequently dismembered) orogenic belts, favoring the microcontinent hypothesis and eliminating the continent–continent-collision hypothesis.Initial Taconic tectonic loading near the southern corner of the Alabama promontory of Laurentia and the lack of post-Taconic extension there are inconsistent with the tectonic history required by the plateau hypothesis, but are consistent with the tectonic history required by the microcontinent hypothesis. Paleobiogeography, distribution of bentonite beds, and the Hirnantian glacial deposits, all indicate wide separation (Iapetus Ocean) between the Precordillera and southern Laurentia at the time of the Ocloyic and Taconic orogenies, further favoring the microcontinent hypothesis.