Laura Grecco

Basement evolution of the Sierra de la Ventana Fold Belt: new evidence for Cambrian continental rifting along the southern margin of Gondwana

U–Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe data together with geochemical and Nd isotope analyses obtained in the basement complex of the Sierra de la Ventana Fold Belt indicate that the Early Palaeozoic passive margin history of the basin followed Cambrian magmatism related to rifting in a 600 Ma Neoproterozoic crust. The Cambrian episode started with intrusion of 531 ± 4 and 524 ± 5 Ma A- and I-type granites derived from a dehydrated infracrustal source (εNd530 −3.1 to −5.9), and culminated with eruption of high-Zr peralkaline spherulitic rhyolites derived from an undepleted lithospheric mantle (509 ± 5 Ma; εNd509 +0.5 to +1.0). These rift-related magmatic rocks were covered by shelf sediments deposited along a once-continuous passive margin, encompassing the Sierra de la Ventana Fold Belt, the Cape Fold Belt, the Falkland/Malvinas microplate and the Ellsworth Mountains block in Antarctica. The Cambrian rifting event defined the outline shape of the southern part of Gondwana, and can be regarded as the initiation of the supercontinent stage, which lasted until Jurassic break-up. The conjugate continental fragments separated from Gondwana during the Cambrian rifting could be the source for microcontinents with c. 1000 Ma basement rocks that collided with the proto-Andean margin during Ordovician–Silurian times.

Mineralogy and geochemistry of hydrothermal kaolins from the Adelita mine, Patagonia (Argentina); relation to other mineralization in the area

Abstract The kaolin deposit at the Adelita mine, located in the province of Río Negro (Patagonia, Argentina), was studied. Petrographic studies on thin sections and chemical analyses of major, minor and trace elements on bulk samples were carried out. The kaolin content of the rock ranges from 31% to 65%. The mineralogy of the working front, which is about 45 m thick, varies from the upper zone, where the rock is strongly silicified, stained with iron oxides and carbonated, grading downwards to a kaolinized zone, with a quartz-kaolinite-dickite assemblage with relict lithic particles and a smaller amount of iron oxides, and ending in the deepest zone where dickite, alunite, diaspore, quartz and scarce associated kaolinite occur. The kaolin mineralogy was determined by SEM, XRD, DTA-TG, IR and δ18O and δD isotope analyses. The S, Ba and Sr contents are enriched during hydrothermal alteration, whereas Cr, Nb, Ti and lanthanide elements are concentrated mainly during weathering. The (Ba+Sr) concentrations in the samples studied vary between 600 and 6000 ppm and (Ce+Y+La) between 2 and 150 ppm; (Cr+Nb) remains constant for all the samples, whereas (TiO2+Fe2O3) is below 0.3%. In the hypogene deposits P2O5 is also more abundant and increases with the degree of alteration. Chondrite-normalized rare earth element diagram shows a marked enrichment in LREE relative to HREE, with negative europium anomalies and δ18O values range between 3.8% and 7.7% and δD between -123% and -103%, suggesting that kaolin formed from the hydrothermal alteration of rhyolitic tuffs.