Significado estratigráfico y tectónico de los complejos de bloques resedimentados cambro-ordovicios de la Precordillera Occidental, Argentina

Abstract

Rocks belonging to the Early Paleozoic Los Sombreros Formation crop out on the eastern flank of the Sierra de Yerba Loca, along the Río Jáchal section. This Formation consists of black shales and turbidites with interbedded limestone boulders near the base of the section, one of them up to 200 m long and 30 m thick. Boulders yield both early Cambrian trilobites and early Ordovician conodonts. Near the top, a thick sequence of dark grey marls and limestone contains an early Middle Cambrian trilobite fauna which is overlain by limestone and calcareous turbidites containing early Llanvirn graptolites and conodonts. On the basis of paleontological and sedimentological evidences this sequence can be interpreted as a series of submarine gravity slides interbedded within a dominantly turbiditic sequence. The Cambrian-early Ordovician precordilleran carbonate platform served as the source for much of the sediment which was redeposited on the slope. Then, deposition of the early Ordovician Los Sombreros Formation could be related to uplift and erosion of the platform margin and steeping of the slope during the late Arenig-early Llanvirn.