Pablo J. Torres Carbonell

• Dr
• Investigador Independiente at Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas

New mapping, detailed petrographic analyses and isotopic ages of the Jurassic21 Lower Cretaceous rocks of the Argentine Fuegian Andes allow us to organize the stratigraphic framework of the Rocas Verdes basin. Accordingly, we confirm a vast lithological heterogeneity associated with the Jurassic rifting that initiated this back-arc basin, including...

We combine extensive field data with calcareous nannofossils and dinocysts analysis and detrital zircon U-Pb ages to identify six Paleocene-Oligocene stratigraphic units in a previously poorly studied area in the external fold and thrust belt of the Fuegian Andes. Detailed petrographic analysis coupled with detrital zircon ages indicate three main...

We report the field geology, petrography, geochemistry and geochronology data for two dyke swarms in the Fuegian Andes, with the aim of correlating them with known suites and of improving the knowledge on the magmatism of the Late Cretaceous rear-arc and its relation with ductile deformation. We also provide keys for correlation based on amphibole...

New structural data from the central belt of the Fuegian Andes (Argentina), allowed us to constrain the geometry of a previously interpreted Cenozoic duplex thrust system that connects forelandwards with the frontal thrustfold belt. This duplex developed between two main detachment horizons: a basal detachment between Jurassic rocks and pre-Jurassi...

On the Fueguian Atlantic coast and in the southern Andean fold and thrust belt, the Paleogene is partially represented by numerous turbiditic systems. Between Río Bueno and Cabo Leticia on Península Mitre, the Paleocene-Eocene is represented by the Río Claro Group (Cabo Leticia, La Barca, Punta Noguera and Cerro Ruperto formations) and the Río Buen...

Los Andes Fueguinos entre el lago Fagnano y el canal Beagle en el sector argentino de Tierra del Fuego (Fig. 1A) comprenden rocas metamórficas de muy bajo a bajo grado del Jurásico al Cretácico Inferior, con una amplia variedad de protolitos ígneos y sedimentarios pertenecientes a la cuenca Rocas Verdes (CRV). El cierre de la CRV inició durante el...

En el cinturón central de los Andes Fueguinos afloran zonas de cizalla dúctil, compuestas de milonitas, que constituyen una característica conspicua de las unidades más antiguas de este sector del orógeno. Estas milonitas han sido descritas con variado detalle por estructuralistas como Kranck (1932) y Bruhn (1979). Este último autor propuso un mode...

Although being one of the most efficient tools to constrain the stratigraphy of sedimentary basins, detrital zircon geochronology may present limitations under certain conditions, and isotopic ages should be treated with caution before assigning a depositional age. This is the case of depositional environments that lack coeval volcanism, where ther...

La porción de los Andes Fueguinos expuesta en Península Mitre (Fig. 1A) constituye un sector clave, dado que es el único accesible a la observación directa donde las cuencas Austral y Malvinas occidental están integradas en una zona de transición. Trabajos recientes de los autores demuestran una estrecha relación entre la evolución tectónica del in...

La faja plegada y corrida interna de los Andes Fueguinos está formada por pizarras y pelitas del Aptiano-Albiano al Daniano, que afl oran en la sierra Beauvoir, al norte del lago Fagnano. Este dominio limita al norte con el ámbito frágil de la faja plegada y corrida externa mediante el sistema de corrimientos Apen-Malvinera, y al sur un despegue lo...

High-quality research developed during the 19th century established the foundations of rock strain investigations. Careful observation and description of rock fabrics and deformed objects in rocks allowed early researchers to obtain mathematical expressions that are still used today to quantify strain. Thus, in a span of a few decades, and applying...

A detailed study of the structural fabrics and overprinting relationships exposed at sierra Beauvoir and sierra de Apen, which include folds, foliations and thrust faults, allowed us to settle a deformation sequence of the internal thrust-fold of the Fuegian Andes. Our results, together with previous geochronology results, indicate that ductile str...

In the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego, Miocene, foreland Austral basin strata of the Viamonte Formation are currently interpreted as deep marine channel-levee complexes. New data on sedimentary facies, paleocurrents, and stratigraphic relationships documents, however, more complex settings. We recognize in the Viamonte Formation three higher-ra...

The sedimentology, petrography, and U–Pb dating of two Eocene volcaniclastic horizons of the Punta Torcida and Leticia formations, Austral basin, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina are interpreted and documented. The volcaniclastic deposits, pumicite breccia and tuffaceous sandstones, are formed by glass shards, plagioclase crystals, and pumiceous and lit...

New detailed structural data from the Fuegian Andes including new ages and cross-cutting relationships with intrusive rocks, as well as an appraisal of published structural data, support that this orogen evolved as a basement-involved thrust-fold belt after initial formation in an arc-continent collision scenario. New structural data from a deforme...

A detailed study of the structure of the Península Mitre recess in the Fuegian thrust-fold belt of southern Argentina reveals superposed deformation related to contrasting shortening directions. One group of structures trend parallel to the recess and verge either towards the foreland or towards the hinterland. A second group of structures accommod...

Asthenospheric mantle flow drives lithospheric plate motion and constitutes a relevant feature of Earth gateways. It most likely influences the spatial pattern of seismic velocity and deep electrical anisotropies. The Drake Passage is a main gateway in the global pattern of mantle flow. The separation of the South American and Antarctic plates sinc...

Combined research on the structural and stratigraphic evolution of the southeastern Austral Basin identifies three major depositional systems strongly influenced by the tectonic stages of the Fuegian Andes between the Late Cretaceous and the Miocene. During orogenic growth, a submarine ramp system characterized by oblique progradational clinoforms...

The Argentine Tierra del Fuego comprises part of the roughly east‐west trending southern end of the Andean Cordillera intensely deformed since the Mesozoic. Mesostructures have been measured in Late Jurassic to Miocene rocks. Taking into account statistical criteria to provide a representative stress tensor from a fault population, this study defin...

The structure of the Fuegian Andes central belt is characterized by a first phase of peak metamorphism and ductile deformation, followed by a brittle-ductile thrusting phase including juxtaposition of different (first phase) structural levels; both related to the closure and inversion of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Rocas Verdes basin. The se...

Timing and structural relation between magmatic arc intrusives and the Fuegian thrust-fold belt at sierra Beauvoir. Intrusive rocks in the cretaceous slates of the internal Fuegian thrust-fold belt, allow us to constrain the age of deformation in the orogen. By studying cross-cut relationships between dikes and tectonic structures, we defined prede...

Structure and petrography of the Lapataia Formation, with implications for its stratigraphy. Fuegian Andes, Argentina. Since the geological observations made in the fuegian foothills by Kranck in 1932, several authors have debated whether the rocks of the Lapataia Formation belong to the Paleozoic basement or the Mesozoic volcanic-sedimentary infil...

Superposed structural fabrics in the easternmost Fuegian Andes reveal two distinct, non-coaxial deformation phases across the transition from the orogenic core to the thrust-fold belt. Each phase is characterized by different metamorphic conditions and consistently different orientations, which allow the structural correlation between the orogenic...

Published balanced structural interpretations of the Fuegian thrust-fold belt (southernmost Andes) fail to address aspects such as basement shortening in the thrust-fold belt, or its structural connection with the central belt of the orogen. We tackle this deficiency by constructing four serial balanced cross-sections based on surface geologic info...

Tectonic models for the evolution of the Patagonian orogenic curve were evaluated using analog experiments that considered either a rotational or a non-rotational orogenic backstop, combined with a basement promontory on the foreland cratonic margin. Five different kinematic configurations were used, aiming to evaluate the influence of the Río Chic...

The major structural and tectonic features of the Fuegian Andes provide an outstanding onshore geological framework that aids in the understanding of the tectonic evolution of the Scotia Arc, mainly known from offshore studies. The orogenic history of the Fuegian Andes (Late Cretaceous-Miocene) is thus compared and integrated with the tectonic hist...

Forests situated above active fault zones may record hillslope evolution, thus holding information about recent seismic events. Lenga trees (Nothofagus pumilio) extend across the Magallanes-Fagnano fault system (MFFS), the active transform boundary between the South American and Scotia plates. Coseismic surface ruptures along the fault scarp tilt t...

G e o l o g i c a A c t a , V o l . 1 1 , N º 3 , S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 3 , 3 3 1 -3 5 7 D O I : 1 0 . 1 3 4 4 / 1 0 5 . 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 7 4 A v a i l a b l e o n l i n e a t w w w . g e o l o g i c a -a c t a . c o m The Fuegian thrust-fold belt has been subjected to significant shortening during the Cenozoic. Although contemporaneous shortening a...

The Fuegian thrust-fold belt (TFB) forms the thin-skinned outer wedge of the Andes in Tierra del Fuego. Using subsurface and outcrop data from two areas (Western and Eastern) of the TFB front in Argentina we aimed to verify and characterize the apparent structural variations along the strike. Both areas reveal pro- and retro-vergent fault-related f...

The Fuegian thrust-fold belt (TFB) forms the thin-skinned outer wedge of the Andes in Tierra del Fuego. Using subsurface and outcrop data from two areas (Western and Eastern) of the TFB front in Argentina we aimed to verify and characterize the apparent structural variations along the strike. Both areas reveal pro- and retro-vergent fault-related f...

This contribution addresses new structural data from Upper Cretaceous-Danian sedimentary rocks of the Fuegian Andes orogenic front in Argentina. The structures studied, called D‧, were formed during the early foreland deformation of the orogen, in the Late Cretaceous-Danian, in times when South America and Antarctica were still connected. The strai...

We made a detailed facies analysis of well exposed Eocene foredeep and wedge-top successions in the SE Austral Basin of eastern Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, contributing to a better understanding of its patterns of sand dispersal. The analysis reveals that these successions constitute portions of turbidite systems with recurrent facies associations...

Time-calibrated balanced-cross sections of the eastern Fuegian Thrust-Fold Belt reveal many complex pro- and retro-vergent structures, rooted at the base of Cretaceous and within Paleocene rocks. These structures involve the unconformity-bounded syntectonic sequences of the Austral foreland basin, and accommodate a minimum shortening of c. 41.8 km....

Graphoglyptids are diagnostic ichnofossils of the Paleodictyon ichnosubfacies (Nereites ichnofacies), which is well represented in deep-marine Mesozoic-Cenozoic thin-bedded turbidites. However, unusual shallow-water records of Mesozoic-Cenozoic Paleodictyon and particular preservational restrictions of graphoglyptid burrows introduce the question o...

The orogenic margin of the Austral-Malvinas foreland basin system is formed by a marine succession exposed at northern Península Mitre, composed of 550 m of the late Paleocene-early Eocene foredeep, and more than 2,900 m of the late middle Eocene-?Miocene María Luisa wedge-top sub-basin. The succession is subdivided in the following formations: La...

The orogenic margin of the Austral-Malvinas foreland basin system is formed by a marine succession exposed at northern Peninsula Mitre, composed of 550 m of the late Paleocene-early Eocene foredeep, and more than 2,900 m of the late middle Eocene-?Miocene Maria Luisa wedge-top sub-basin. The succession is subdivided in the following formations: La...

New field data, specially the discovery of the contact between Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene rock units in a previously unexplored area in southeast Tierra del Fuego, allowed us to estimate the amount of strike-slip displacement accommodated by the Fagnano Transform System (FTS). This stratigraphic contact is exposed both to the north and south of the...

Field work in the frontal part of the foreland thrust-fold belt of the Fuegian Andes reveals complex relationships between stratigraphy and structure. Construction of balanced cross-sections allows us to infer the geometry and kinematics of structures controlling the thrust-fold belt evolution. The sequential restoration of these cross-sections to...