The Allochthony of the Argentine Precordillera Ten Years Later (1993–2003): A New Paleobiogeographic Test of the Microcontinental Model

Abstract

Recent and new faunal data from the Cambrian to Silurian rocks of the Precordillera, Famatina and Northwest Argentina basins are used to discriminate between different paleogeographic models, and especially to establish to what extent they are compatible with a previous conclusion that the Precordillera is a Laurentian-derived microcontinent. There is no paleontological evidence to support a para-autochthonous Gondwanan origin of the Precordillera. The strong differences in the Cambrian trilobite faunas and lithologic successions preclude a common origin of the Precordillera terrane, eastern Antarctica and South Africa. Recent discoveries of brachiopods and organisms of the Phylum Agmata strengthened Laurentian affinities during the Cambrian. The latest Cambrian-early Ordovician faunas that inhabited the autochthonous Northwest Argentina basin, including the western Puna volcaniclastic successions, are mostly peri-Gondwanan. The early Ordovician brachiopods, ostracods and trilobites display mixed Laurentian, Baltic and Avalonian biogeographical links supporting a drifting of the Precordillera across the Iapetus Ocean. Increasing Gondwanan elements during the Llanvirn, along with varied geological evidence, indicate that the first stages of collision may have begun at that time, involving a major change in the plate kinematics. The distribution of facies and faunas, basin development, and timing of deformation are interpreted as resulting from a north to south diachronous closing of the remnant basin during the last phases of convergence and oblique collision of the Precordillera terrane with the Gondwana margin. The high level of endemism of Caradoc faunas may be a consequence of the rearrangement and partial isolation of sedimentary areas during the strike-slip movement of the colliding Precordillera plate with respect to the Gondwana margin. Suggested relationships between facies distribution, geographic barriers and faunal migrations before and during the collision are depicted in a series of schematic reconstructions at five time slices from late Cambrian to Silurian.