Roberto A ScassoUniversity of Buenos Aires - CONICET · Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires - Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas
Roberto A Scasso
PhD
Sedimentology, stratigraphy and geochemistry of phosphates, black shales and shallow marine sediments
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167
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Introduction
Currently working on the stratigraphy, sedimentology and geochemistry of Jurassic/Cretaceous black shales of Argentina (Molles and Vaca Muerta Formations) and in the Jurassic and K/Pg boundary of the Antarctic Peninsula
Additional affiliations
January 1992 - January 1993
Education
September 1981 - May 1987
Publications
Publications (167)
La Fm. Vaca Muerta (Tithoniano-Valanginiano) es una sucesión marina depositada como una rampa carbonática en la Cuenca Neuquina. La misma se compone de una alternancia rítmica de margas y calizas con alto contenido de carbono orgánico total (COT hasta 12 wt%). Es la principal roca madre de hidrocarburos de la cuenca y es considerada el primer play...
The present study focuses on the morphosedimentary organization and sediment infilling stratigraphy of one of the largest estuaries of southern Patagonia in Argentina. With a tidal range up to 12 m, the area is subject to extreme tidal conditions, combined with moderate offshore wave climate, strong and constant westerly winds, and contrasted water...
The southern coast of Argentina is known for its high tidal ranges and large coarse-grained coastal barriers that have emerged over time as a result of the regional uplift. Well-preserved barriers can provide critical information about the morphological evolution of the coastal areas, and the relative evolution of the mean sea level, as long as the...
Se realizó un estudio tafonómico y experimental de las fosforitas bioclásticas del Ordovícico en el Noroeste Argentino, compuestas por fragmentos de braquiópodos linguliformes, con el propósito de determinar los procesos sedimentarios y mecanismos de concentración que condujeron a su acumulación. Por primera vez, se investigó experimentalmente el c...
El principal objetivo de este trabajo es explicar las diferencias de madurez de la Fm. Vaca Muerta entre afloramientos de la FPC de Chos Malal y de la región de Huantraico (subsuelo), ubicados en una transecta E-O que involucra perfiles sedimentológicos de las localidades de Chacay Melehue, Puerta Curaco y un pozo petrolero ubicado al este, sobre e...
El análisis de facies de una sucesión marina somera (Miembro Rupasca de la Formación Santa Rosita, Tremadociano temprano, Jujuy) reveló el desarrollo de un sistema de lóbulos y canales formado por la acción de flujos gravitatorios inducidos por el oleaje de tormenta. Se describieron 4 asociaciones de facies (AF). La AF 1 se compone de fangolitas li...
La Fm. Vaca Muerta es una unidad marina silicoclástica-carbonática de grano fino depositada durante el Jurásico Tardío-Cretácico Temprano en la Cuenca Neuquina. La misma se constituye principalmente de margas con alto contenido orgánico (carbono orgánico total, COT < 12 %) y calizas. Dadas sus excelentes propiedades geológicas, esta unidad actualme...
En esta contribución se presentan los avances en la construcción de un esquema holoestrátigráfico para el Tithoniano-Berriasiano en la Cuenca Neuquina. El
Tithoniano-Berriasiano está representado en la cuenca por la Formación Vaca Muerta y sus equivalentes laterales: formaciones Carrín Curá, Picún Leufú, Quintuco, Bajada Colorada, Lindero de Piedra...
Se describen tres maderas silicificadas de la Formación Lago La Plata (Titoniano, Jurásico Superior) la cual aflora en la margen sur del lago Fontana, en cercanías al cerro Katterfeld, provincia del Chubut, Patagonia Argentina. El repositorio del material es la colección del Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio en la ciudad de Trelew, provincia del...
Phosphorites composed by linguliform brachiopod shells represent a poorly known phosphorus source. As mineral precursors for P-fertilizers, they are an increasingly important resource for agricultura! activities. Linguliform brachiopod shells have a
stratiform organo-phosphatic microstructure, which produces bioclasts characterized by their low den...
The mineralogical and geochemical characterization of sediments of the Reconquista River allows analyzing the geochemical partition of trace elements in one of the most polluted water courses of Argentina. The low dissolved oxygen and high ammonia contents, together with the high chemical oxygen demand, attest to the poor water quality. Ammonia, Cd...
The spectacular fossil plant assemblage preserved in the non-marine Mount Flora Formation of the northern Antarctic Peninsula represents the diverse Jurassic flora that once covered the Gondwanan continents at high paleolatitudes. The depositional facies of the formation plays a key role in the tectonic interpretations and basin evolution models th...
En la cuenca de Cañadón Asfalto se reconocen cuatro formaciones depositadas durante el Jurásico: Las Leoneras y Lonco Trapial (Sinemuriano - Pliensbachiano), Cañadón Asfalto (Toarciano - Aaleniano?) y Cañadón Calcáreo (Oxfordiano - Kimmeridgiano). Todas ellas preservan restos megaflorísticos a modo de impresiones, compresiones y permineralizaciones...
The mineralogical and geochemical composition of carbonatized tephras of the Vaca Muerta Formation (Tithonian-Berriasian) in the Neuquén Basin (Argentina), allows retracing the diagenetic history and the origin of clay minerals in order to establish the sequence of diagenetic transformations and to explain the presence of chlorite in the felsic/int...
Granular phosphorites composed by linguliform brachiopod shells and siliciclastic sediments represent a globally distributed phosphorus resource. The brachiopod bioclasts are characterized by an organo-phos-been investigated yet. Their study is crucial in understanding the concentration mechanisms acting in the-ment dynamics in general. We present...
The Vaca Muerta Fm (VMFm) is an organic-rich, marine succession deposited during the Tithonian-Berriasian in the Neuquén Basin, Argentina. Due to its high total organic carbon content (TOC) which may reach up to 12 wt.%, the VMFm is considered as an outstanding unconventional hydrocarbon shale reservoir but very little is known about its clay miner...
The Vaca Muerta-Quintuco (VM-Q) system of Tithonian-early Valanginian age was studied in the Chacay Melehue section of the Neuqu´en Basin (western Argentina) by means of sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical analyses in order to determine the main driving factors that triggered the paleoenvironmental change from a carbonate ramp (Vaca Mue...
The Cañadón Asfalto continental Basin preserves terrestrial deposits interbeddedwith volcanic rocks, providing a unique opportunity for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the Jurassic continental realm. This study presents a sedimentological, mineralogical, and geochemical analysis of three lacustrine successions in the Cerro
Cóndor area of the...
A high-resolution sedimentological and palynological study was performed in combination with biomarker-based organic geochemical temperature proxies TEX86 and MBT′/CBT, on a 7.4-m-thick continuous section straddling the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary at Seymour Island, at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The K-Pg interval of the S...
Rosselia socialis were studied in the Ordovician Áspero Formation, in order to explore their sedimentary and diagenetic fingerprint in the substrate. These trace fossils are found forming crowded Rosselia ichnofabrics, described for the first time in pre-Quaternary strata of Argentina. We identified three microstructures corresponding to the centra...
The study on a unique set of outstandingly preserved sedimentary surface textures (SSTs) found in the late Tremadocian Áspero Formation of northwestern Argentina, coupled with the sedimentological and ichnological analysis, indicate that they were formed in the intertidal to supratidal setting of a mixed-energy estuary recording storm and tide sedi...
New collection work in Mount Flora, Hope Bay, Antarctic Peninsula, has confirmed the presence of bivalve moulds in the Jurassic Mount Flora Formation. In contrast to a twenty-first century article claiming to report the first discovery of fossil freshwater molluscs in Antarctica, evidence of these molluscs was first reported for Antarctica more tha...
This work focuses on the transition from the Las Leoneras to Lonco Trapial Formations, in the lower part of the Early Jurassic succession of the incipient rift phase of the Cañadon Asfalto Basin (western part of Chubut Province – Patagonia, Argentina). Twenty lithofacies have been identified and grouped into seven facies associations on the basis o...
We report Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous (Kimmeridgian-Berriasian) calcispheres from the Ameghino (Nordenskjöld) Formation at high palaeolatitudes on the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Ameghino Formation generally contains a relatively poorly preserved association of calcispheres, which are often recrystallized or replaced by silica...
Argentina, a large country �with an important agriculture industry, needs an ever-increasing amount of potassium, as essential elements for plant growPotassium (K) is one of the three major nutrients along with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).Demand is linked to fertilizer consumption, which is in turn driven by: a) increasing of the intensive agri...
The Vaca Muerta-Quintuco system is an organic-rich, marine, shale succession deposited during the Tithonian-Valanginian in the Neuquén Basin, western Argentina. During that time, the basin was a semi-restricted back-arc basin, located to the east of a volcanic-arc and periodically flooded by the Paleopacific Ocean (e.g., Legarreta and Uliana 1996)....
We describe osteichthyan remains from the Upper Jurassic of the Ameghino (= Nordenskjöld) Formation of the Antarctic Peninsula. The fossils are referred to a suspension-feeding pachycormid based on the shape, morphology, and presence of acus fanunculi (needle teeth) on their gill rakers. Due to the fragmentary condition of the Antarctic material, w...
The present work documents the stratigraphic distribution of dinoflagellate cysts from the upper part (60–585 m) of the YPF.Ch. PV. es-1 borehole, Península Valdés, Argentina. The assemblages exhibit a relatively moderate to low diversity. Most samples are characterized by frequent to abundant taxa of
the order Gonyaulacales, such as Spiniferites/...
Integrated analysis of the transition between Vaca Muerta and Quintuco Formations and it´s paleoenvironmental implication in the Puerta Curaco section, Neuquén Basin The Vaca Muerta-Quintuco system in the Puerta Curaco section (northern Neuquén Basin), consists of a 716 m thick shallowing-upward cycle deposited from early Tithonian to early Valangi...
RESUMEN Sedimentología y diagénesis de los carbonatos de la Formación Vaca Muerta en la localidad de Puerta Curaco, Cuenca Neuquina Este trabajo investiga los cambios diagenéticos sufridos por las calizas de la Formación Vaca Muerta en el perfil de Puerta Curaco con el objetivo de evaluar su relevancia para la caracterización de reservorios. Dentro...
El Monte Flora (Bahía Esperanza, Península Antártica) posee una de las asociaciones vegetales clásicas en la literatura paleobotánica y, debido a su enorme valor científico, fue denominado como Zona Antártica Especialmente Protegida. Su tafoflora es una de las más diversas a nivel mundial y su edad ha sido discutida en numerosos estudios, en un ran...
The composition of river water, sediments, and pore waters (down to 30 cm below the bed) of Las Catonas Stream was studied to analyze the distribution of trace elements in a peri-urban site. The Las Catonas Stream is one of the main tributaries of Reconquista River, a highly polluted water course in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The semi-co...
The deposits of the Vaca Muerta-Quintuco system (Tithonian-Valanginian) have been analyzed in the Puerta Curaco section to study the mineralogical and geochemical variations through the progressive transition from a carbonate ramp (Vaca Muerta Formation) to a mixed shelf (Quintuco Formation). A lithostratigraphic log, gamma-ray measurements (GR), m...
At present, the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina (CNEA) and the UBA, in cooperation with the National University of Salta (UNSa), are carrying out the project “Assessment of the uranium potential of phosphate rocks and testing low-grade phosphate ores extraction” in the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP), which i...
During the Jurassic two main marine pathways might act as dispersion routes for vertebrates and invertebrates between Laurasia and Gondwana: the Caribbean Seaway (between North and South America) and the Trans-Erythraean Seaway (splitting Africa from India, Madagascar). The former has proven to be of relevance as a dispersion route for marine verte...
A potential prospect as a source of potasssium, considering aspects including available resource and ore treatment, is evaluated. Large deposits corresponding to glaucony levels occur in the Tertiary outcrops of Salamanca Formation, Patagonia, Argentina. Glaucony sandstones (greensands) are abundant in this unit in the Golfo San Jorge basin. Glauco...
La prospección de fosfatos en el área del Cerro Salado (38º 12' 07,8" S, 70º 02' 06,6" O), permitió detectar anomalías dentro de la Formación Quintuco (Berrisiano-Valanginiano Inferior), Neuquén. Estas corresponden a depósitos residuales (lags) conformados por nódulos y peloides fosfáticos, fragmentos de huesos y conchillas parcialmente fosfatizada...
ABSTRACT Geology of the area of Embalse Las Maderas, Jujuy Province, with a note on the Tremadocian-Floian bioclastic-phosphatic accumulations. The geology of the embalse Las Maderas area, Jujuy Province in the Cordillera Oriental (Eastern Andean Cordillera) of Argentina is described. The exposed succession corresponds to the metamorphic basement o...
The geology of the embalse Las Maderas area, Jujuy Province in the Cordillera Oriental (Eastern Andean Cordillera) of Argentina is described. The exposed succession corresponds to the metamorphic basement of northwestern Argentina (Puncoviscana Complex) and the marine sedimentary rocks of the lower Paleozoic (Mesón and Santa Victoria Groups), cropp...
The deposits of the Vaca Muerta-Quintuco system (Tithonian-Valanginian) have been analyzed in the Puerta Curaco section to study the mineralogical and geochemical variations through the progressive transition from a carbonate ramp (Vaca Muerta Formation) to a mixed shelf (Quintuco Formation). A lithostratigraphic log, gamma-ray measurements (GR), m...
Proximal volcanic settings are characterized by unconformities and rapid spatial facies changes. Unconformities are due to erosion in a high-relief landscape associated to volcanoes. Spatial facies changes result from high-volume, topographically-controlled and areally-restricted instantaneous sedimentation close to the volcanoes. Together, they co...
The late Miocene beds of the Puerto Madryn Formation (Provincia del Chubut, Argentina) are formed by shallow marine and estuarine sediments. The latter include several tidal-channel infills well exposed on the cliffy coast of the Peninsula Valdés. The Bahía Punta Fósil and Cerro Olazábal paleochannels are end members of these tidal channels and sho...
This special issue of Geo-Marine Letters presents selected contributions from the 9th International Conference on Tidal Sedimentology held on 17–19 November 2015 in Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The guest editors are the conference organizers Roberto A. Scasso and José I. Cuitiño. Gerardo M. Perillo was the head of the Scien...
Upper Maastrichtian to lower Paleocene, coarse-grained deposits of the Lefip an Formation in Chubut Province , (Patagonia, Argentina) provide an opportunity to study environmental changes across the Cretaceous–Palaeo-gene (K–Pg) boundary in a shallow marine depositional environment. Marine palynological and organic geochemical analyses were perform...
Two major marine transgressions covered part of Patagonia during the Miocene and both are recorded in the Península Valdés region. The older (early Miocene) is represented by the volumetrically scarce outcrops of the Gaiman Formation, composed by shelf mudstones and fine sandstones. The late Miocene transgression is represented by the Puerto Madryn...
Se realizó el mapa geológico y el estudio sedimentológico del área del cerro Salado y alrededores (provincia del Neuquén), con énfasis en el estudio de las Formaciones Vaca Muerta y Quintuco y su contenido de fosfatos. La Formación Vaca Muerta presenta un reducido espesor de 20 m de pelitas negras con amonites de edad berriasiana temprana a media....
The geological map and sedimentological study of the cerro Salado and surrounding areas in the Neuquén Province was carried out, with emphasis in the study of the Vaca Muerta and Quintuco Formations. The Vaca Muerta Formation is constituted by 20 m of black shales and bears early-mid Berriasian ammonites. The Quintuco Formation is 218 m thick and i...
Se presentan los resultados de la prospección radiométrica realizada en intervalos de coquina fosfática que intercalan en unidades ordovícicas del Grupo Santa Victoria, con el objeto de buscar fuentes potenciales de elementos de REE, Th y U. Se discuten las relaciones químicas de estos elementos con los fosfatos y se describe el método de prospecci...
Los ambientes marino-marginales con influencia de mareas presentan una gran complejidad debido a la variedad de procesos sedimentarios que en ellos ocurren, lo cual queda reflejado en sus depósitos (Darlymple y Choi, 2007). En estos ambientes resulta característico el intenso retrabajo de los sedimentos y la concentración de minerales, entre ellos...
La Cuenca de Cañadón Asfalto, ubicada entre el Macizo Nordpatagónico y laCuenca del Golfo San Jorge, presenta una importante columna de sedimentos jurásicos y cretácicos acumulados en hemigrábenes pertenecientes a un sistema
de rift formado durante la fragmentación de Gondwana. La Cuenca de CañadónAsfalto incluye varios depocentros sedimentarios de...
The age and stratigraphic subdivisions for the late Oligocene-Miocene, marine deposits of Patagonia (Patagoniense succession) have been largely debated. Most studies for the Comodoro Rivadavia region were focused on its biostratigraphy and stratigraphic relations with the underlying and overlying mammal-bearing terrestrial strata. We report here th...
Early Miocene shallow marine deposits in the region of Lago Posadas-Meseta Belgrano (Argentina)
represent part of the “Patagoniense” transgression, an Atlantic marine incursion that flooded large part of Patagonia, including the Austral (foreland) Basin (southern Patagonia). These deposits, referred as El Chacay (Argentina) or Guadal (Chile) format...
The Cañadón Asfalto Basin, situated in central Patagonia between the North Patagonian Massif and the Golfo San Jorge Basin (Fig. 1), comprises a thick column of Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments accumulated in several depocenters separated by transference zones of basement blocks, namely the Gastre, Gan Gan, Fossatti, Valle de General Racedo, Gorro...
2014): A new marattiaceous fern from the Lower Jurassic of Patagonia (Argentina): the renaissance of Marattiopsis, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology To link to this article: makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our...
Major and rare earth elements (REE) in authigenic phosphatic concretions of the siliciclastic Lefipán Formation (Late Cretaceous - Paleocene of Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina) were analyzed. This geochemical study aimed to reveal the processes that led to the formation of the concretions under the particular paleoenvironmental and diagenetic...
Major and rare earth elements (REE) in authigenic phosphatic concretions of the siliciclastic Lefipan Formation (Late Cretaceous - Paleocene of Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina) were analyzed. This geochemical study aimed to reveal the processes that led to the formation of the concretions under the particular paleoenvironmental and diagenetic...
The lower Miocene Estancia 25 de Mayo Formation consists of shallow- marine to estuarine deposits that bear numerous oyster shell beds distributed throughout the succession. Facies analysis reveals that oysters grew in the nearshore paleoenvironments of both the lower Quie ́n Sabe and the upper Bandurrias members. Two oyster species were identified...
Two meter-scale pyroclastic levels are interbedded within the early Miocene succession of the Estancia 25 de Mayo (Patagoniense transgression) and Santa Cruz formations in the foreland Austral (or Magallanes) Basin, Argentina. The Lower Pyroclastic Level (LPL) is a tabular body interbedded within offshore marine deposits, laterally continuous for 3...
The fluvial, lacustrine and tuffaceous sedimentary succession of the Cañadón Asfalto continental basin exposed in the Argentinean Chubut Province of central Patagonia preserves an extraordinary record of Jurassic fauna and flora that marks key events in the evolution of Dinosauria, early mammals and major South American plant groups. However, basin...
Nearly all data regarding land-plant turnover across the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary come from western North America, relatively close to the Chicxulub, Mexico impact site. Here, we present a palynological analysis of a section in Patagonia that shows a marked fall in diversity and abundance of nearly all plant groups across the K/Pg interval. Mi...
